NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
by The Ryujin
Summary: From nowhere massive beings called Angels have appeared bringing devastation to the world. Only a barely controllable weapon can hope stand against them, one that can only be tamed with the heart of a child. Mankind's final war has begun...
1. Prologue: Abyss

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger<br>**

**Prologue  
><strong>**Abyss **

**Monday August 24, 2015  
>228 kilometers off the cost of Delaware<br>2:43PM EST**

Another whip-crack of thunder boomed across the sky as Lieutenant Junior Grade Eric "One Eye" Baker struggled to keep himself upright as the massive frame of the _Zumwalt _class destroyer U.S.S Robert A. Heinlein (DDGN-1007) clashed against the rough and choppy waves that had recently formed seemingly out of nowhere along with that strange lightning storm they were now in the middle of knocking it's tumblehome hull about as it moved ahead at full steam. Once the ship steadied he again took his position leaning against the sidewall just off from the main hanger door arms crossed while he waited impatiently for that group of civvie paramilitary contractors to finish mucking around with his baby, the SH-60H Advanced Capacity Seahawk anti-submarine helicopter that was stationed on board. He didn't like the unsavory rumors he has heard about this origination they were a part of and he liked this strange electrical storm they were moving through even less, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and all the weather charts showed clear skies for the next week and then BAM! This storm just came out of nowhere. And then there was that even stranger aurora like ribbon of undulating colors in the sky just over the horizon that all this lighting seemed to be concentrated around and to make matters worse that's what they were steaming right towards.

He shot a glance over to his Airborne Tactical Officer Ensign Jacob "Slasher" Cook which conveyed everything he wanted to say about this fuck all of a situation they were in but knew better to which Jacob smirked, lowered his head and shook it in response. Petty Officer Second Class Daniel "Capt'n" Morgan, his Aviation Warfare Systems Operator, however was the lucky bastard of the group not having to suffer though all this fun since his station was being taken over by one of those civvie A-holes.

This whole mess started for them just over two hours ago.

Eric and Jacob had just stat down at their spot for lunch in the officers mess (Daniel being a wiener had to keep to stick with the rest of the sub-humans in the enlisted-man's mess) when the call to action stations blared over the intercoms and the seven ship detachment of Destroyer Squadron EIGHTY-SIX (named such despite almost half of it's force being composed of Cruisers) transformed into battle configuration, the stealth covers hiding their rail cannons, laser turrets and point defense missile batteries lifted up and folded out of view while the all ships changed course at full steam kicking up massive rooster tales in their wakes. Twenty minutes later their Squadron met up with Destroyer Squadron SIXTY-FOUR and Cruiser Squadron EIGHTEEN followed shortly after by two full carrier battle groups and then finally by two _Leviathan_ class battleships, the Tiamat and Kraken (BBGN-112 and BBGN-115 repetitively), assembling the largest fleet anyone had seen since the wars that followed that hellish September day Fifteen years ago when the Heavens collided with the Earth.

Then approximately thirty minuets ago THEY showed up.

Representatives of a private paramilitary organization chartered under the UN consisting of two heavy "suits", one taller then the other by a good two inches, whose casual killer eyes, complexions and accents gave them all the signs of being former Mossad agents who acted as the groups "spokesmen" and a couple of techs dressed up in orangeish-red jumpsuits were lead into the pilots ready room by the ships XO Lt crd. Frederick Bell who went on to explain that they would be in charge of leading an operation that all of them were going to be deployed on but of course not the _why_. After the XO's introduction the taller of the two suits stepped up with a folder in hand and promptly dismissed Daniel telling him he wouldn't be needed for this mission and after their AWSO had left the suit opened up the folder and proceeded to inform the two copter pilots with a dry, almost emotionless tone that everything about this mission was classified top-secret and that they could not speak to anyone with out the proper clearance and the consequences of them failing to head his warnings would included some rather serous jail time. You know, the usual BS. He then went on to explain that after the techs installed a new sensor package to the helicopters dipping sonar array they would fly them on a survey mission, the nature of which the suit wasn't at liberty to discuses, and with that he closed his folder, turned and nodded at the XO and motioned for the techs to follow him out of the rooms.

After that the two pilots decided to go top side to make sure their baby kept her chastity against those fowl civvies who wised to defile her and almost forty minutes of waiting later Jacob nudged Eric in the side to get his attention pointing towards their copter where one of the techs leaned part way out of it's side door and gave the suits the A-OK sign. Eric nodded and they both stretched the fatigue out just as the tall suit yelled for them to come over just as the sky lit up brilliantly followed by another bang of thunder, this one loud enough that it almost startled the pilots. They reluctantly made there way over and the taller suit gave them their marching orders, "Alright once again. I must stress everything that happens form this point must remain confidential do you two both understand?"

Before answering Eric noted how the suit seemed to be almost obvious to the phenomenon happening behind them that grew more intense as the ship drew closer though the tech standing next to him seemed to be doing his best to act like he didn't, his eyes twitching as he forced them not to glance up at the party in the sky. Whatever they were doing it was obviously going to be about that. He then gave the obligatory yes sir with just the right tone of discontent which was followed by the same from his co-pilot after which the suit continued either dismissive or oblivious of their obvious contempt of him, "Your orders are simple, you are to fly us to coordinates 37.48 by 72.24 and….."

"You mean over to that psychedelic light show in the sky." Eric cut him off, pointing back towards the phenomenon with his thumb and the suit shot him a displeased look before responding with, "Yes, you are to head over to the anomaly and hold station where we will man the AWSO and deploy the dipping sonar. You two are then to await further orders from us. Do the both of you understand?"

They both nodded yes despite not liking this set up on bit.

The suit nodded back then added, "For this mission you will be backed up by Seahawk HS-7-64 D from the U.S.S Michael Monsoor. Alright that is all."

And with that the two copter pilots sprung into action bordering their copter, they both quickly surveyed the damage that they had done to their baby noting that what appeared to be a new pressure guarded mangometer senor package had been added which puzzled them, they're sensor suit already incorporated the latest MAD gear. Eric then looked across over to the AWSO station which to his displeasure had been run through pretty roughly, panels were removed and wiring exposed with two laptops jerry rigged into it; this did not make him at all happy but regardless he hopped into the pilot seat to the right having little choice in his involvement with all this while his ATO took his place to his left as the tall suit and two techs hope on board, one taking up the AWSO while the other sat by one of the rigged laptops.

Eric then informed the civvies to plug their headsets into the copters intercom system since once the rotors went on good luck trying to yell over them and went over the preflight check list calling up his back up while doing so.

"Seahawk HS-7-64 Delta this is Seahawk HS-7-67 Fox Trot. Over." Eric transmitted.

"HS-7-67 Fox Trot this is HS-7-64 Delta, what's the biz One eye? Over." Came the reply.

"What's up Big Rollin', how are thing on your side? Over." Eric asked his wing man over the radio using code to ask him questions that he didn't want the suits know he was asking.

"Never been better! Got some new friends over here helping us out. Over." Was the reply. Translation: they're dealing with the same assholes.

"So how's the game? Over."

"The Cardinals are doing hot. Over." Translation: they were carrying live ordnance. Eric already didn't like how things were going but the fact what ever they may be investigating might have to be shot at just….. he didn't know; it just didn't seem like something that should be really happening, like this was all a movie but sadly this was all to real.

"Bah, the Cubs are going to take it this year, I can feel it. Over."

"You say the same shit every year, we've already been through one apocalypse and they still haven't brought home the pendant, it's going to be the Cardinals all the way. Over"

"Whatever. Alright; follow my lead and try not to look to much like an ass out there; we got civvies to impress! Over."

"Same to you, need I remind you of who it was that over shot the ship. Over."

"Asshole that was back in flight school, try bringing up some more recent history. This is One Eye over and Out."

He then double checked the current weather chart , for what they were worth with all this strange spontaneous weather happening, then got permission to launch and pulled back the yoke and the Seahawk was airborne giving them and even more impressive view of the… of what ever the hell it was. To his right out the corner of his eye he saw his wingman rise up from the deck of the Michael Monsoor.

As they drew closer to the anomaly a pit started to form in his stomach at the realization of what he had to fly into, the lighting flashes started to arc down all around them forcing him to take more and more of an erratic flight path slamming the pilots and their passengers around in the process as the distance between them and their destination grew smaller. He glanced up at the horizon noticed that the aurora seemed to be moving Eastbound towards the flooded district at about 68knots. Nothing about this made sense, what the hell was causing this? If this thing was air borne why did they need a anti-submarine helicopter, what the hell was a dipping sonar gonna find out? And to top it off just who were theses guys bossing them around? Why was a paramilitary origination investigating a weather phenomenon? But the thing that disturbed him the most was the fact his wing man was carrying live ordnance….  
>Something caught his eyes; it was his instruments, his altimeter, compass and other instruments were starting to given erratic results. "Shit!" he muttered to himself before calling over to his ARO, "Your instruments acting funny?"<p>

"Yeah" Jacob shot back.

"No good, no good, I'm gonna call up Rollin' and let him know what's up."

Eric flipped on the radio and called up his wingman, "Seahawk HS-7 Delta this is Seahawk HS-7 Fox Trot this is One Eye again. Over."

"Seahawk HS-7 Fox Trot this is Big Rollin', what's the news.? Over."

"Be advised that this…. "storm" is giving off some kinda interference that's impeding instruments operations, I repeat the storm is impeding instruments operations. Over."

"Roger that, storm is impeding instruments operations, anything else I should be advised about. Over?"

"That's all for now, this is One Eye. Over and out."

Eric then called out to the civvies in the back, "Alright things might get a bit bumpy, the storms messing with my instruments panel so I got to eyeball this." as he flew into what appeared to be the densest part of this "storm" keeping his eyes open so he doesn't get caught off guard by a random bolt form the blue.

"What the hell is that?" Eric heard Jacob called out pointing down toward the ocean; following his ARO's lead he looked down at what he was pointing at to see something gliding maybe eighty feet under the waves, it looked like a biologic but was larger then any he ever seen before but was too small to be a submarine, long enough but far to thin. It was also moving faster then anything thing he's ever seen before going by his best guess at around 68knots….. 68knots!

Eric looked up and saw that the leading edge of the aurora was positioned right above whatever that thing was.

THIS had to be what they were looking for! But what was it? He glanced one more time at it noticing it looked almost….. humanoid before he informed the freeloaders, "Hey, we got a unidentified object moving at almost seventy knots underwater." He then pointed in the direction of the object, "That's what you guys are looking for?"

The suit leaned forward to get a better view the answered, "Correct, set a holding station as close as you can to it."

Eric ran down the math in his head taking in account how long it would take to for the sonar to be lowered to that things depth and how long it normally takes to get a good signal and figured 600ft in front of it should do it and he jerk his copter hard to the left just narrowly avoiding a lighting bolt while turning 40 degrees to the left to cut it off, it was fast but nowhere fast enough to out run his baby.

He then set his station hoping to God that another lighting bolt didn't suddenly decide this was a good spot to come down at while he heard the distinctive grinding noise that singled the lowering of the dipping sonar and he waited as he watched that… thing get closer with the aurora trailing after it while keeping an eye out for lighting.

"We're getting erratic singles, it's overloading everything!" Both pilots heard the tech manning the AWSO shout out over the intercom.

The two pilots were now starting to get impatient, just what the hell did we need to know about this thing? They already had a visual and if they were going to attack it…. but before he could finish his thought he heard a loud-piercing beep emanate overcoming even the deafening sound of the rotors followed by the tech relaying to the sits, "It's confirmed sir, pattern is blue!"

A second later the tall suit came over the intercom with, "Alright your mission is finished, return to your ship."

Those words were a million burdens off both of their chests, this whole things was just too weird and the sooner he could forget abut it the better and Eric replied, "Roger." then banked his copter back around while radioing his wingman to inform that he was retuning to his ship and as he headed back he watch from the corner of his eye Big Rollin's Seahawk pull up sharply as it dropped two parachute retarded torpedoes into the water, Marks 58's by the look of them.

Eric then watched them splash into the water followed the blast of bubbles as the two super-captivating torpedoes rockets kicked in sending the projectiles racing towards that bizarre underwater figure…


	2. Chapter One: Thrust and Parry

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
><strong>**Vol: 1 Dark Messenger**

**Chapter One**  
><strong>Thrust and Parry<strong>

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia**  
><strong>3:58PM EST<strong>

A cloud of dust was kicked up around the landing pad by the twin oversized propellers of the modified UV-38C tilt-rotored transport that was touching down outside the Eastern North American Command base bearing on it's sides and top of it's left wing the blood red logo of it's operators, the words NERV partly covered by half a fig leaf with the cryptic motto "GOD'S IN HIS HEAVEN; ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD" in a half circle beneath it. The rear hatch of the aircraft lowered accompanied by a hydraulic whine and a small explosion of personal clad in tanish gray long sleeved uniforms poured out each holding folders, document books or large banks of data tapes who where greeted by the signal and information corps men of the various military branches stationed here.

The last to step out was a man wearing a black command version of the uniform whose presence radiated a sense of command and power. He held a hawkish, almost predatory face that show strong traces of his Slavic descent, his jaw outlined by a neatly kept donegal style beard with a thin auburn brown cesar cut to top off his head, his sharp-dark bister brown raptor-like eyes where shaped into a piercing scrawl and any of the few emotions that may betray his demeanor were masked by the dark orange tint of his glasses.

He stopped just after walking off from the hatch, adjusted his glasses back into place and then proceeded to glance over at the base with both disbane and humor; it was an ugly collection of office buildings that used to be owned by a major telecommunications company until it was bought out by the federal government do to it's built in facilities making it an ideal temporary replacement site to house it's military command after the Pentagon was lost to the terrorist event that claimed the capital.

From his right he heard a voice call, "Commander! This way please!"

Glancing over he saw it was an army signal corps private dressed in an urban cameo uniform who was trying to make sure he got his attention by waving him over, he nodded and followed him into the large main building passing by the entrance check point bypassing the metal detectors and body scanners letting a slight smile briefly cross his face as the men guarding the entrance stood at attention and saluted him as he passed down a hallway that stank of sterileness in spite of the fact the paint on its walls were already fading and it's galvanized floor with it's tacky patterns was in heavy need of proper buffing. A tang of disgust now filled that place that a few seconds ago was housed by humor, he would never let any facility under his command fall to such a level of disrepair but such was all to familiar in government buildings-the symptoms of the parasites that dwelled within.

The private finally lead him to an elevator which took them down two levels opening into a short slightly better maintained corridor that ended with a set of double doors guarded by two more marines, they saluted and opened the doors for him and his guide led him into the bases darkened main command center where he was greeted by the Secretary of Defense Gen. Robert Adams who offered his hand out for a quick handshake while blurting out in a tone that tried too hard to sound like one taken with an old friend, "Gregory Ikari! Good to see you made it!"

He took the Secretary of Defense's hand with a firm handshake doing his best to cover up his annoyance at the mans obvious attempt at an insult by to failing to addressee him by his proper rank and replied simply with, "Indeed."

The Secretary of Defense then patted Commander Ikari on the shoulder and waved for him to follow him saying, "Come on this way." and Ikari followed him across the room to the center table which provided an excellent view of the three main "flat" 3D screens and main holographic projector whose three color vector graphics recreated an abstracted version of the Delawarean coast line where different colored shapes representing the various military units that where gathering there while a large red "I" encased in a circular outline was approaching the cost form the sea.

Seated at the table were three of the joint cheifs of staff: Fleet Adm. David Fletcher, Gen. Joseph Fairchild of the Airforce and Gen. Leroy Adams of the US Marine Corps., they all turned back to look at him each mumbling out a half hearted greeting and with out being asked Ikari reached into his open jacket and pulled out a set of blank cased data disks and handed them over to the Secretary of Defense who took them with an, "Oh!" being mildly surprised to see the disks being produced without having to ask for them.

The Secretary of Defense held them in his hand for a second almost as if he was testing their weight while asking mostly rhetorically, "Is this all the data on the target?"

Commander Ikari gave him a slight nod while answering, "Oh course, they contain all the data you _asked _for."

The Secretary of Defense nodded back then handed the disk off to a passing orderly and then offered him a seat which Ikari refused opting to stand.

A second later a female voice called out over the intercom, "The Intruder will reach the coastline in five minutes."and the collection of brass seated before Ikari took on the certain tension of excitement like that of a group of highschool kids on a football team eagerly awaiting to be put into play as the Secretary of Defense stood up and ordered, "Tell all units to go weapons free as soon as they make contact with the Intruder!" while Commander Ikari took a glance across the various data streams coming over the screens and projector. From what he could see their battle plan was based around having a ring of probing units who would open up fire on the target to learn the "Intruders" tactics and weaknesses followed by further rings of ever increasingly specialized units which would then be directed depending on what it seemed most susceptible to.

It was a well thought out plan he admitted to himself, it was simple, direct and efficient and he even let visible smirk graze his face but despite his admiration for their plan he already knew full well what the outcome of this battle would be.

**Coastal Hyw Sussex County, Delaware  
>4:07PM EST<strong>

2nd Lt. Arnold Jackson, commander of the 32nd tank platoon, held up his range finder and increased it's magnification while mentally blocking out the near oppressive wine of the ever present cicadas and through it he saw the rippling rooster tail being kicked up on the surface of the bay by the still submerged inbound Intruder as it pass by some of the taller buildings that still broke the surface in the sunken area taken when the floods came and claimed most of the old coast as lighting cackled out of the near cloudless sky around it.

He then looked up at the even stranger aurora in the sky that seemed to be following it.

It would be any minute now he thought to himself as he lowered his finder and sifted around in the hatch of his M1A2 Abrams main battle tank so he could look back at the rows of his tank that lined Coastal Highway not liking the set up one bit. Not only was this do to the pit in his stomach that was growing proportionally to the shorting distance between him and the Intruder which in turn was added to the fact that nobody was bothering to tell them just WHAT the hell this "Intruder" thing was…. though given what he was seeing he had more then enough suspicions to that end; it was just he didn't quite ready to accept where THAT line of thought would take him and to top all this off his orders where to set up a "blanket of firepower" which meant he need to pack his tanks in nearly end to end making them nothing more then fancy artillery pieces there by making any type of retreat a bad joke at best.

The rumbling of a near by jet shook him from his morbid line of thinking and he scanned the area noting the various other military pieces set up along the coast ranging from multiple missile launchers to lighter tanks, to his left he glanced at the lines of battle frames, a new generation of bipedal IFVs, still in their "wheeler" mode and thought to himself, "Lucky bastards, they might have half the armor and fire power I do but at lest they'll be able to maneuver their way out of here if things go bad."

Suddenly the cicadas stopped and for a whole second the world turned eerily silent.

Then with an explosion of sound his ears were filled with the caws of a thousand birds as a mass flock of avians of every kind rose up from the surrounding area in a mass migration fleeing the coastline ominously highlighted by the now constant flash of lighting.

He looked back across the beach, the aurora was almost over the it and with a massive upheaval a patch of the water exploded into the air as something unearthly rose from beneath it…


	3. Chapter Two: Longing

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Volume One: Dark Messenger<strong>

**Chapter Two  
>Longing<strong> 

**N Dupont Blvd. Amtrak station Georgetown, Delaware  
>4:23PM EST<strong> 

"I'm sorry but do to the special state of national emergency no lines are currently available, if it's an emrg….." -*CLICK*-

A young Asian teen stood near the entrance of an Amtrak station sighing slightly to himself as he hung up the payphone while another rapid-fire sequence of lighting bolts flashed across the sky followed seconds latter by their thunderclaps which did their best to compete with the ever present wail of the of the air raid sirens.

The boy looked up trying to get a glimpse at the approaching storm front that was producing all this lightning but could only see that the strange ribbon of light in the sky had drawn closer and then after taking a second to compose himself he looked back down at the picture he held that had the phone number he had just dialed written on it. He then lifted his gaze up and slightly to the right to look at the image of the raven-haired woman with the inviting smile posed half bent forward while leaning on the handlebars of the bike she was sitting on who the phone number belonged to and found himself re-reading the writing she had scrawled across the left side of the picture:

"I'll be the one picking you up, keep an eye out for me ok."

He then went to read the "P.S." below the main text but slightly hesitated for a second until his curiosity becomes enough to overcome his embarrassment:

"Oh, and keep and eye out for theses too!"

Accented by the cherry-red kiss mark she left as well as the dash marked line that the teen hesitantly but eagerly followed to where it terminated with a arrow head and a circling of the woman's more then

ample cleavage which he found himself staring at for few more seconds more then he planed.

His embarrassment finally getting the better of him he cautiously darted his head from left to right to make sure no one caught him despite the fact he knew he was currently alone, everyone else at this stationed had already fled and figuring he should be leaving as well he picked his duffel bag off the station's floor throwing it's strap over his right shoulder while stowing the picture back in the large side pocket.

"Well looks like I won't be meeting you now Ms. Kelling" the boy thought out loud to himself as he took one last look across the empty station.

Now he had to figure out what to do. His train had been canceled do to what was announced to be some "national emergency" and everyone was informed to leave the train station and evacuate the area and then at what almost seemed like the same time air-raid sirens started going off as lighting began doing the same in the distance, that's when he first noticed that weird light in the sky, and his first instinct was to call the person who was supposed to pick him up when he got to his destination, both to inform her that he was going to be detained as well as to have someone to talk to keep his mind off the worry that was building up in his gut over everything that was happening but that turned out to be fruitless.

The fact that he was alone was now starting to get to him, he normally was used to being alone but now that feeling clawed at him. He was feeling scared and left hoping someone would show up and tell him what to do...

He tried his best to calm himself and clear his head; he needed to figure out what he was going to do…. find a shelter, start walking back to his… home… _home_…. that wasn't seeming like a bad idea, it wasn't that far… maybe…

- *FWWWWWWOOO-SHWOOOOOOOOSH!* -

He was rattled out of his thoughts as several low-flying jet fighters screamed over head.

Panic had him now, he didn't know where he was to go but he did know full well that where ever he did go was better then here and before he even had realized he had ran out of the station and down the a street he was a good 3 blocks away already! Realizing this he decided to stop and take a quick breather before trying to figure out his next move, he looked around trying to see movement, people he could follow to safety but the block the was empty with nothing but a few cars abandoned in the street.

He moved his gaze back down the block he ran down when he nearly jumped back with shock as his eye made contact with…. a girl…. she was almost ghostly in appearance with near pearlescent skin. She appeared to be Asian, her smooth doll like face was somehow both plain yet at the same time held an striking beauty, her page-boy style bob cut made of sapphire blue hair and then he noticed it. Her eyes; those explosive drops of crimson with feline pupils enclosed within beautiful almond shapes.

He took a few steps back both frighten and intrigued by her unearthly beauty and then once more his ears were pierced by the screams of a low-flying jet; he instinctively looked up at it to see the small-skinny aircraft pull into a climb as two stick like objects fell from it with a torch of flame erupting from behind them rocketing them forward. With that it finally hit him filling him with an deepening feelling of dread and panic: a war was approaching. 

He shot his attention back towards the girl, he had to warn her! But she was gone with out a trace, a pang of disappointment and abandonment swept over him at that fact and he was once again alone and at a lose as what to do…. a flash caught his eye followed by a loud -*BANG!*- that caused the ground to rumble slightly, smoke and sparks trailing streamers rose above the lines of buildings.

Then another explosion went off, followed by another and another.

Panic had him totally once more and motivated by instinct he began to run, just run as far from the explosions as possible. The explosions where getting closer and so was the lightning but that was the farthest thing on his mind right now….

-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-

He came to a stop as he nearly lost his footing do to the ground….. not so much shaking as it rebounded causing the power lines that lined the streets to whip about.

-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-

It happened again, he was certain that this wasn't do to an explosion, it just didn't _feel_ like one.

-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-

With the third one a horrid wailing like sound filled the air, a sound like something he never had heard before. He couldn't tell if it came from a mechanical source and it sure didn't sound like anything natural...

-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-

He then started to hear another noise on top of that; screaming, he heard screaming. A second later from the end of the block a heard of people came pouring down the street, terror gripping their faces as they surged forward piling over each other.

Terror had griped him again but this time he was a deer in the headlights.

-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-

The sound of swaying power lines again filled the air followed by that horrid wailing which in turn was followed by the sound of crashing metal and the wail of a dying aircraft struggling to maintain it's altitude as something came spiraling around the same corner the people had fled from smashing into and rebounding off of the side a building sending bits of masonry and flaming metal flying across the street. It then spiraled two more times trailing thick black smoke; it was then he recognized what it was, he didn't know it's name or anything like that but he did know it was that new aircraft with those large jetpods on the edges of it's wings that can swiveled around that has been featured in a lot of TV shows and movies lately. It then finally smashed into a small corner story pantry in an explosion of dust, glass and metal.

Every nerve, every cell of his body told him to flee to some imagined safety "over there" but he couldn't so fixed with fright he was, so out of his experience this was to him. Then something moving caught his eyes attention, it was coming from inside the crashed aircraft, one of that things pilots was still alive but the something behind him was trapping him; he couldn't move. His gloved hand began banging against the cockpit in a vain attempt to brake it open or get some one who could save him attention. The pilots and the boys eyes met and locked on each other, the look on the pilots face for a split second went from horror to joy at the prospect of someone noticing his plea and then in a flash an over powering light blinded the teenagers eyes and he felt his body begin lifted and thrown by a rolling wall of heat.

He arched in pain as his body slammed back down into the asphalt as the air filled with the metallic tinge of kerosene mixed with something acidic. After a few seconds that felt more like a life time later he found himself coming out a daze, his body recoiling at the thought of moving. He was surrounded now by the sounds of screaming missiles, bullets and jets flying over head; the mixed rumble of the ever present explosions and thunder. And then there was that unearthly, hideous wailing.

Slowly he sat up as the tension in his muscles started to relax. He rubbed the flash-spots from his eyes and tried looking around.

He was at a lost to do.

What the hell was going on? Who was attacking us? Where could I go…. maybe I should just stay here and hope… Why did I even come? Why did I even bother? It's not like he really cares...

His skin then started to tingle and he looked down at his left arm to see the hair on it start to stand on end as all around him electricity arced between cars, the spaces between buildings and discarded cans left on the ground. Above him the ribbony light in the sky started to pulsate, radiating lines of color like ripples in a pond and then the ground recoiled as a great blast of dust and light came from several blocks away on his left as some great thing casted a shadow over him as it leapt over head landing several blocks away to his North-West with a force so great the ground rippled out from the point of impact like a wave blowing our windows and knocking him over as the street heaved under him as his mind fought with the realization of the impossibility that stood not far from him standing titanic in it's massiveness towering over the city like an adult stands over a child's doll house.

What he saw was a gargantuan form that was the mockery of a mans, great parts of it had what appeared to be feet thick sections of coral growing off of it entangled with clumps of sea plants giving it the impression some portion of the sea floor had awakened and taken semi-human form. Between the parts covered by sea life was a molted dark almost blackish green mesh that seemed to sift and waft as if it was made of smoke or shadow that appeared to be it's skin. From under the coral appeared to be thick spiked bone-like armored protrusions covering parts of its back, shoulders, thighs and chest while long-sharp spikes protruded out of the back of it's elbows with it's arm ending in three short claw-like fingers and at it's top a short, thick, muscular neck housed a mask-like face shaped almost like a longed beaked owl's skull that held no visible mouth or nostrils, only two large black-empty orbits that passed as its eyes marred it's smoothness and though the teen knew little of practical engineering he still was well aware at how impossibly huge and gangly it was with it's waif like waist and spindly legs somehow upholding the massive bulk of its muscular chest...

What was it? How was it? His mind raced with questions and horror at this strange and alien thing as several aircraft like the one he saw crash came screaming in from the North ripple firing salvos of missiles and rockets at it. The projectiles streaked towards it and then in a yellow flash most of them exploded several feet from the titan falling to strike a single blow against it! The rockets that ended up missing the target began to crash into near by buildings with two streaming right at where he was standing! The boy sprung into action before he even could consciously think about it trying to put as much distance between himself and where he was!

He tool a quick glance back to check on the missiles but failed to spot them. he turned his head back to look foreword just in time to see a blue car barreling at him! He came to a stop shifting his weight to keep form falling over and braced for the impact only for the car to swerve around him into a one-eighty as the two missiles slammed into an apartment complex behind him to his right gutting it and blasting out pieces of streaming debris which were now plinking of the now idling vehicle.

The passenger-side door swung open and a raven-haired women wearing a brown dress and a crucifix necklace around her neck leaned over from the drivers seat…..

It was her! The woman who was supposed to pick him up, Megan Kelling!

"Are you William Ikari?" She asked hurriedly in a half yell.

"Ye….yes." The boy stuttered in reply.

"Then get in!" She yelled as she half pulled him into the car.

She took a look back at the thing the military was fighting and bit her lower lip then yelled, "Strap in, we need to get out of here NOW!" As she promptly proceeded to floor it. 


	4. Chapter Three: Desperation

****NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
><strong>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger**

**Chapter Three  
><strong>**Desperation  
><strong>

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia  
><strong>**4:25PM EST **

Updates and reports were streaming in now at an overwhelming rate creating a near incomprehensible babble of voices echoing around the room:

"All incoming fire is being neutralized with a hundred percent chance of intercept; it's currently unknown if this is do to some form of directed energy or some type of force field."

"We have reports that an orange or yellow glow is being seen just before fire is intercepted."

"No visible damage to the Intruder."

"Weapons with Radar, laser designation, LADAR and emissions homing guidance are failing to lock on!"

"Massive interference is coming off of the Intruder."

"We've lost contact with the 87th tank platoon!"

"No, we tried that... lasers are being deflected too."

"We need a med evac here now!"

"Where the hell is that artillery?"

The assembled brass stood half-hunched over the table yelling out orders in a desperate gamble to reclaim some kind of order out of this cluster fuck but at lest so far they have had the fact that the Intruder has only attacked units that have gotten too close.

Behind them Commander Ikari stood half forgotten in their panic thinking to himself, "Let them learn this lesson well."

A women's voice then came over the intercom, "Fifteen minutes to Thor's Six and Nine are in an intercept orbit."

**523 W. Edward st Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**4:26PM EST**

2nd Lt. Keith Peterson sprinted up his tenth flight of stairs humphing under the weight of the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher that he had prepped and readied resting on his shoulder, it's BCU already starting to reach room temperature, as he lead his mechanized unit to the roof. He bounded around the corner to the last leg of the steps nearly defaecating himself as he was greeted on the other side by two screaming teenage girls.

"Why the hell are they..." Peterson started to think to himself before realizing that it didn't really matter, only the fact that they were was. He looked back and called out to the Pvt. Anderson to escort these girls to their Stryker IAV, his job was to provide cover fire for the unit with an M-240 Bravo 7.62mm machine gun so the lieutenant figured he wasn't all that needed right now since if that Titan started firing back at them his presence wouldn't make a damn lick of difference. Pvt. Anderson nodded and led the terrified girls back down the stairs and after they disappeared around the bend Peterson waved his unit on and began advancing up the steps again and out onto the roof where he nearly freezing in his tracts once more as his training nearly gave out to his instinct to flee to safety as he saw this monsters true terrifying enormity as it stood less then a block away for the first time. He shook his head an cleared his mind thinking, "I must be that brave or just that stupid." as he ran towards the the rim that lined the roof and set up resting his missile launchers tripods on as the rest of his unit followed.

He switched on the launchers CLU and selected direct fire, NFOV mode not even bothering to activate the infrared snooper since this thing was somehow jamming all forms of weapon guidance and lined up the cross hairs with the target (which at this point was so close they would of had to actively tried to of missed) and pulled the trigger feeling the launcher kick back as a bust of compressed gas shot the Javelin missile 60m into the air before it's motor kicked in rocketing it towards the Intruder in under a second only for it along with the rest of the missiles fired by his squad to explode hopelessly in an orangeish flash several feet short their target. Peterson then hit the deck laying as flat as he could against the roof cursing to himself, as much as he logically knew that it would a futile jester his pride wanted another shot at it but it was too late for that. It was the Air Force's turn now and all he and his unit could do now was brace for it.

**In the air above Georgetown, Delaware  
>4:27PM EST <strong>

A flight of eight FB-22C Delta Raptors tipped forward into a steep dive breaking the sound barrier eleven seconds into it streaking downward at their target like hawks diving for prey coming in at a seventy-eight degree angle.

Each fighter-bomber's Weapon Systems Operator cried out, "Pickle, pickle pickle!" and thumbed the trigger on their stick and each jet lurched as two massive bombs fell from their bellies. Each birds driver then pulled their plane out of the dive trying to bleed off enough velocity so they don't follow their payloads into the ground.

After falling 181 meters and losing around 62 meters per second of velocity the rocket motor on the back of each of the bombs kicked in blasting each depleted uranium cored tungsten projectile at mach 3.6 as they raced in towards the walking titan below.

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Rd 62  
><strong>**4:27PM EST **

Lt. Fredrick Jackson, commander of what was left of his squad of M1A2 SEP main battle tanks, raced down a small side road between wheat fields that was just barely holding up under them.

He put his eye to his targeting sight in time to watch several large streaks flash into what had become an all to familiar orange flare before the bombs burst into a brilliant torch of fire and sparks around sixty feet off from that strange walking…. thing.. that has become almost uniformly named the Titan by all the engaged forces though his personal name for it had become "Swamp Thing".

Everything that they have done to it so far has failed to even slow it down and despite the fact he knew full well the futility of his actions he had to do…. something.

"Range! 620! Elevation! Five! Traverse! Fourteen!" The tank commander ordered to the gunner feeling the turret spring to life at his command.

"Load one DU-SAA-BOT!" He then barked to the loader who reached back and pulled an arrow tipped Armor Piercing Fin Stabilizing Discarding Sabot- Depleted Uranium round from the tanks magazine placed it into the breach and fisted it in, locked it and then flattened himself as tightly against the side of the turret wall as possible before yelling, "Loaded!"

Jackson nodded to himself thinking in a half prayer, "This will be the one."

He then yelled, "Fire!" and felt himself jerk back under the recoil.

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Asbury Rd  
><strong>**4:28PM EST **

2nd Lt. David O'Neil tore down the road with the rest of his squad in his M83 Carlson Main Battle Frame in "wheeler" mode at 63kph kicking up trails of dust and broken asphalt.

The M83 Carlson was the latest addition to the US Marine Corps., a nearly five meter tall semi-humanoid shaped bipedal fighting machine armed with a variety of anti-tank and anti-personel weaponry. It traded armor and high speed for maneuverability, excellent performance on uneven terrain and domination over other units in urban and forest/jungle combat.

Sadly right now however he was where his machine was at it's weakest, in open terrain.

He twisted the right control stick swinging the torso forty-three degrees to the left bringing that massive beast into view as a salvo of tank rounds traced a path across the sky as a flash of that ever-present lighting caused him to blink reflexively (his helmet mounted display auto-filtered such things but it couldn't filter ingrain reflexes) after which he saw most of the rounds collide with nothingness, two rounds just glanced right off.

Despite knowing nothing would come of this he had orders to follow. He rolled the selector on the weapons-op stick highlighting his 90 mike-mike, adjusted the cannons elevation and depressed the trigger and after recoil dissipated he added in his last two anti-tank missiles.

**Atlantic Ocean, 37km of the Coast of Delaware  
><strong>**4:30PM EST **

The _Leviathan_ class battleship U.S.S Hydra (BBGN-111) brought it's three massive three-gun turrets of 382 Megajoule Rail Cannons to bear and a blast of luminous plasma mushroomed out of each of it's barrels as they fired causing the water under it to depress almost two full meters propelling it's 500kg saboted round to over 1.2km/s across the bay towards it's inland target.

Just after the last round was fired the rest of the ships in the assembled fleet added their big guns to the salvo and once they stopped osculating from the recoil the sky lite up again as each one in turn began ripple-firing off their compliment of mach three capable, three dimensional thrust-vectored armor-piercing bunker-busting cruise missiles.

A total salvo of 146 missiles reached and altitude of 140m. Each one dropped their booster after which their jet's kicked and they leveled off as they each dropped to eighty meters from the surface.

**In the air above Baltimore County, Maryland  
><strong>**4:30PM EST **

A flight of six B-3A's, the air forces newest heavy bomber; a stealth flying-wing like the older B-2 only faster, stealthier with a payload capacity greater then even the venerable B-52H could boast, were flying in a "V" formation 4,000m above the unincorporated community of Owings Hills carrying forty armor-piercing high-explosive tipped high-speed thrust-vectored cruise missiles each, twenty-four in an internal bay with sixteen more on optional wing mounted hard points.

Each one fired off their sixteen winged mounted missiles and then using explosive bolts blew off the no longer needed hardpoints reducing the bombers drag as they each banked hard to the right moving into a holding patterned above the battle field.

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**4:37PM EST **

"….so how long to that air-lift gets here? Well it can't be help, alright; thank you Marry. This is Captain Kelling out."

Capt. Megan Kelling hanged up her cell phone, folded it and put down in it's spot by the clutch as she sighed to herself. She didn't like having to leave behind her modified han-blue Renault Alpine A310 1600 VE sports car but she didn't like the thought of having to drive through a war zone either and given how important her charge was taking a copter out of here was the better option. But then there was the damage that explosion did to her car... that was going to cost a few hundred just to hammer out the dent let alone repaint them and then there was the fact her next payment was due on it Friday…

"Well my accounts fried for the next two weeks." She thought to herself, "But at lest I'll be able to pick it up later on... there shouldn't be anyone around to steal it….. but man... getting back here to pick it up is gonna suck…."

After she was finished lamenting over the fate to be for her prized baby she glanced at the cluster of traffic desperately trying to flee the city using the out bound lanes. She on the other hand was using the mostly empty inbound ones to make her escape, a few drivers noticed and made their way onto the other side where they could following her. She then looked down at her young charge from the corner of her eye, his eyes were still wide and fixed forward from partial shock and he was leaned in as far as the safety belt would let him clutching his knees like he was trying to curl up in the fetal position.

She also noticed that while his Japanese side from his mother dominated most of his appearance, upon closer inspection tell tale characteristics of his father stood out especially in his jaw-line, the shape of his nose, the shade of his hair and his eyes. His eyes were his fathers.

"Well now we finally have him and soon... soon he should be safe." She thought with a sense of satisfaction, they had been searching for him for almost as long as she had been part of the paramilitary organization NERV. Three years ago the kid had ran away from his guardian which just happened to be only a few days before he was going to be contacted originally and since he never used a credit card, his social security number or had anything put in his name he was next to impossible to track and it wasn't until a by chance satellite photo turned up with him visible in it that they found out that he was living in a small shed turned studio apartment paying his expenses by do the odd job for his land lord, though that little old lady seemed to mostly be letting him live there by her good graces.

After coming back from drifting off in thought she noticed William's left eye twitch a look nervously at her like he wanted to say something but was able to build up the courage. He then quickly let out an abortive, "Miss Ke…Kell…." An look of embarrassment crept across his face before he straighten out and tuned to look at her while stating to ask, "Ms. Kelli….."

"Just call me Megan, don't need to go all formal on my account." She cut him off with a pleasant smile.

He nodded and started to reply, "Ms. Ke…." out of habit before stopping, the informality of addressing her by her first name felt unnatural to him. He corrected himself and then continued, "Megan...what…. what is that THING back there… Where did it come from?"

Megan paused for a moment weighting her duty against her desire to give this poor kid some piece of mind….. but would telling him the truth do that? She decided to choose her words carefully, "Well…. the agency I work for codenames it Angel, Angel: Zero-Two. The military is just calling it Intruder right now though but unfortunately that's all I can tell you; even what I just said is skirting the line but don't worry after you get to NERV I'll be able to tell you more."

The fact she called it Angel: Zero-TWO worried him more then just a bit, if this was number two was there another one? He really wanted to press her on that but first he needed to build up his courage to do so. He began to think of a way to brioche it but was distracted by the loud crackling explosion coming form behind him that was joined by another one, then another until the continual explosions started to remind him oddly enough of popcorn popping.

His curiosity got the better of him and he turned to see an uncountable swarm of large missiles which group by group slam into that thing Megan called an "Angel" creating a literal curtain of fire around it which it walked though with the casualness one would walk trough curtain of cloth barely even seeming to notice the bombardment it was under.

Just what in the hell IS this thing!

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia  
><strong>**4:40PM EST **

The brass was desperate now, they were running out of options.

The ground forces had failed, the air strike with BLU-238 Rocket boosted Deep Penetrators had failed, the mass missile strike had failed. They only had a few more options to pull this off.

A voice called over the intercom, "Thor's Six and Nine are now in a attack orbit."

The Secretary of Defense shot up out of his seat like that news was greatest thing he ever heard, he slammed his palms down on the table in an overly dramatic manner while shouting, "Initiate Operation: Silver Forest, tell our boys to find some cover!"

**LEO 625km above the Atlantic Ocean  
><strong>**4:40PM EST **

The two Thor (ASDK SV-6 and ASDK SV-9) kinetic bombardment satellites moved into position, their extended radiators giving them the look of giant metal moths. Both attack satellite's optical and thermal cameras tracked their target making thousands of calculations based on it's size, heading and speed firing it's venires making finite adjustments to it's altitude bringing it's revolver like weapons pod to bare and after they both had a firing solution that satisfied their programming requirements each loaded a round into their barrel, capacitors then discharged into the solenoids that lined their barrels giving each 1000kg tungsten projectile just enough kick to brake orbit.

Each one then fired twice more.

The projectiles fell at a acceleration of 1g gaining 9.8m/s ever second of free fall getting it's speed boost off of the Earth's very rotation imparting them each with a final velocity of 8.6km/s by the time they had hit significant atmosphere, their composite sabots acting a ablative heat shields shedding off as air friction heats each rod to nearly 5000 degrees Celsius.

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**4:44PM EST **

William heard another series of thunder claps rock the sky, which normally wouldn't have been that warranting of his interest since he's been hearing them all day but this one sounded…. different, they seem to drag on continuing to rumble so he turned to look back seeing six meteors falling across the sky.

In light of everything that has happened to him today he still found the fact that meteors were now falling from the sky odd.

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**4:44PM EST **

The massive marauding thing; called Angel to some, Invader to others with a thousand other names on the tongues of all the soldiers who futilely faced it, walked forward with purpose. It seemed almost oblivious to the small things around it as lighting cracking around it.

Suddenly it…. sense something, it turned it's head gazing skyward at what it was sensing.

These were different.

**In the skies above Sussex County, Delaware  
><strong>**4:45PM EST **

The salvo of massive space-borne projectiles trailed a sheath of plasma around themselves boring a vacuum through the atmosphere which caused the air around them to expand outward at super sonic velocity which along with the air rushing back in to fill the vacuum left in their wake caused thunderclaps much like the one left by pedestrian lightening with the main difference it was ongoing.

Each projectile by now had been braked by atmospheric forces to only 6.3km/s; this however was by design as any faster and the projectiles risked shattering and exploding upon impact rather then penetrating and despite this fact they each still had over 19.8 gigajoules of kinetic energy focused on a cone with a diameter only a foot across!

**Just outside Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**4:45PM EST **

The projectiles where almost at their mark when their target did something different; the lighting and aurora above it increased, it twisted it's body, spaced it's legs and dug it's tridactyl feet into the ground.

It then spun it's torso forwards lunging it's right arm out and in a sudden pulse powerful muscles bulged down it's arm shattering the corral formations growing on it raining their fragments to the ground below as a blueish glow formed around the boney spike protruding out of its elbow.

The timing of this was such that it's three fingered hand made contact with the first of the projectiles to reach him, the sky flashed orange and for a brief second a new phenomenon was present; a hexagonal pattern was visible at the point of impact. Suddenly it's elbow spike quickly retracted into it's arm and out of a hole in it's palm colliding with the projectile which flashed into a sphere of plasma and sparks, the next five round them came down, two of which missed it entirely and between them every structure standing for 168m around it was blown into dust and all but the most harden when partially leveled for the next 300.

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**4:45PM EST **

With a deafening blast the ground violently shook while shock waves battered the rear of the car forcing Megan to fight with the wheel to keep form swerving, William looked back to see six balls of plasma and smoke mushroom into the sky.

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia  
><strong>**4:46PM EST **

The brass watched the incoming flow of Intel with bated breath with just one question on their mind, did they get it?

Reports came in that the lighting has stopped and the aurora above it had started to dim.

Did the get it?

Reports stated that no moment as of yet had been detected.

Did that mean they got it?

The Security of Defense let out a long held breathe, the other two high ranking officers to his left and right watched his lead and followed suit, the man behind them simply stood there indifferent knowing already the outcome.

"Was it over?" The Security of Defense thought to himself, "Was this monster finally dead?

Suddenly over the intercom a voiced yelled out in panic and disillusionment, "Energy reading at the epicenter!"

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**4:47PM EST **

Suddenly the lighting stated back up, the aurora in the sky intensified, arcs of electrify jumped between the mushroom clouds left by the kinetic impactors and a brilliant glow was seen within.

Communications between the troops and command was growing erratic, some of the closer units where cut off entirely.

Panic started to grip the troops in spite of their training but despite their growing fear all of their eyes were fixed upon it.

A halo of plasma formed 122m above where the monster stood encircling the stems of the still rising mushroom clouds and with a burst of light the pillars of smoke wear cleared from around the beast and it's horrid alien form was visible in it's entirety for the first time, all the sea life cleared from it.

Great fountains of pure white light then started to poured form it's eyes like burning torches and it arched it's back, raised it arms and then it yelled, a horrifying unnatural wail filed the air forcing all open troops to cover their ears in pain as the lighting discharges becomes greater in power and frequency, the aurora above it pulsed and radiated.

A glow like St. Elmo's fire formed around the titan and sound began to fill the air, a building sound of some great force being concentrating into it's self and the soldiers looked on in a awe that border on the religious so beyond was this to anything seen by human eyes.

The sound reached a crescendo, the glow discharged into a great pillar of light that shot sky ward parting the clouds and destroying several over head satellites, several more plasmatic halos appeared around the pillar forming almost a hemispherical shell; the pillar then pulsed outward propelling the shell of halos outwards at speed and men, vehicle and aircraft tried to flee them but all was consumed leaving only fiery points of light drifting skyward to mark where living beings once stood.

For three kilometers around there was nothing but the Angel, the Intruder, the Titan, the Alien with six insect like sets of forked lighting shooting off of it's back with smaller tendrils of energy branching offs in filamentary arcs.

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**4:47PM EST **

Megan watched all of this from the corner of her eye. Her mind trembled at seeing this as memories, images long buried of THAT day forced their way back into her consciousness…

A voice, she heard someone…..what was it? Her name, someone was calling her name.

"Ms. Kelling what's wrong!"

She had snapped back to the sound of William shouting in fear and concern as she saw him grab the wheel with his left hand and pulled it to the right keeping them form going off the round and into a ditch.

She shook her head trying to regain her sense, she mutter out, "I'm fine, I'm fine." mostly to convince herself. She looked back at the Angel in the distance with it's out stretched "wings" and spray of light coming from it's head; it was then it had truly struck her, not on an intellectual, logical level but a deeper inner sense that truly the Angels where back.

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**4:47PM EST **

The Angel arced back slightly and the lightening "wings" and outpouring of light from it's eyes stopped.

It slightly titled it's head and began to shift from the left and then to the right and then it peered forward almost as if it was leering.

Movement; tiny figures dated away from it and the great being lunge foreword in pursuit emitting a new, sharper wail that despite it's sheer alieness conveyed a basic, simple, primordial message that was understood by all.

It was angry.

Great lances of light pulsed from it's eye blasting heaps of earth up from the ground with force shattering scores of both tank and men in a single blow and the soldiers of the most powerful military the Earth has so far seen turned and fled abandoning equipment, machines and comrades as this great alien force brought it's vengeance upon them.

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia  
><strong>**4:52PM EST **

Eight minutes, eight whole minutes until the next set of Thors would be in attack range the current two rendered useless by the EMP generated by the Intruders blast; not to mention all the surveillance, communications and other assorted satellites from several different nations that were also taken out and they just finally had rebuilt their satellite force lost after the Impact….

The Secretary of Defense did his best to not show his complete and utter feeling of defeat but it was plain to all who looked at him, several privates and corporals looked away from their stations at him and felt their own despair grow.

"One, just one of them did this! And we're supposed to face more in the future! How where we going to beat these things?" The Secretary of Defense thought, "Who much did we lose?... Well... it looks like we're going to need to except the UN's help after all…"

A phone range on the table and he looked down to see that it was THAT one. With a reluctance befitting of schoolboy who knew he was about to be belittled by his teacher in front of class he swiped his clearance card through the reader unlocking the red colored phone and then he picked it up.

"…Yes sir…. I….. I understand sir. I'll carry it out right away sir….."

With procrastination he slowly hung up the phone, his hand slightly trembling at the thought of what he now had to do, he stood up and with a somber expression on his face he ordered, "Operation: Fail Safe is in effect as of now!"

**Above the skies of Amelia County, Virginia  
><strong>**4:55PM EST **

A solitary B-3 cruised above the ground below at a speed of 300kmph, it's belly only holding sixteen large cruise missiles.

It's bomb bays door opened dispensing a single missile. The missile deployed small wings and took off under it own power breaking the sound barrier 3 times.

Over 418km away above the skies of Caroline County Maryland another B-3 does the same as just off the Maryland/Delaware border the flight of six B-3's which had engaged in the missile strike against the Intruder earlier dropped twelve more missiles each from their bellies.

The two solitary missiles and the swarm of seventy-two all move on a course that would merge them all into one large salvo.

**NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center  
><strong>**4:56PM EST **

Vice-Commander Kenneth Franklin stood at his usual place to the left of the commander's chair atop the command tower despite the fact he currently was the acting commander out of habit as well as the fact he was a man who preferred standing; it kept one's mind active.

He looked across the flat and holographic displays that lined the console in front of him trying not be overloaded as he skimmed them for relevant data, of course all the information streaming here had been pre-screened for what was "relevant" but the Vice-Commander knew full well that relevant was a very subjective word.

He then glanced over at the large holographic map projected in the center of the cavernous room and the panoramic wide flat 3D screen that lined the wall at the far end of the room grazing for anything deem "not relevant" he could still use, then down at the Ops. Station deck 4m below him looking over the three Lieutenants, Shawn Adams, Michel Haynes and Marry Illich who acted as the final buffer between the Commanders and the over powering tide of information hard at work at their consoles and then looked farther down to the three Magi Super Computers with their independent monitoring stations that which with out the base couldn't even function and then he quickly glanced over at the two side wings on the lowest level which were busy with activity, lower ranked staff ran between counsels ferrying data sheets and records amongst the ever present hum of fax machines and telephones which have become an ever present source of bother for him, you see through a work of acoustic genius the room was designed so if for whatever reason the intercom system was ever out the Commanders could shout orders which would be bounced off the walls and relayed for their subordinates as well as the sounds from the lower decks would be refracted up to the Command pier. The problem of that was all the mechanical humming from below was constantly being re-broadcasted back up here with perfect clarity much to his old ears's disbane!

As for the Vice-Commander himself he was a man in his late fifties to early sixties by appearance, fifty-eight years to be exact, with a long fatherly face topped off with silver-gray pompadour styled hair and graying eyes.

"Sir! We've just got report that Operation: Fail Safe has gone into effect!" Lt. Illich yelled over the intercom her shock audible in her tone.

"So they've finally gotten desperate." The Vice-Commander thought to himself, a smirk appeared on his face in appreciation of the dark humor of the operations name. Verification of the order appeared on one of his screens.

"Sir!" the young Lieutenant yelled once more, "We have confirmation of launch!"

Three separate windows opened in one of his holographic displays showing satellite footage of two single and one fleet of six B-3s firing cruise missiles.

"Where's the Captain current position?" The Vice-Commander asked his subordinate.

"She's on North-West bound on Seashore Highway outside of Georgetown. Delaware." Was the replied, at the same time a 3D map replaced the looping footage of the Bombers showing Capt. Kelling's heading.

"What kind of yield are we looking at and how long to they hit?" He asked sizing up the situation.

"Based on the type of cursive missile used, information is still hard to come by on it but I say it's a good guess that it has the new W-92 warhead; it's a multi-yield thermonuclear design with a max yield of 300 kilotons minimum yield of 13 and it will reach the target in about six minutes." Lt. Illich answered.

As she spoke graphics representing the various effective blast radii of the weapons initial radiation pulse, thermal pulse and blast wave assuming according to a window in the corner of the simulation that both warheads hit at their full 300 kiloton yield was used and the weapons was airbursted at 104m from the ground, the same height approximately as the target.

Franklin looked over the map. Ok, she was too far to be effected by the initial radiation, the fallout could be dealt with later, she was also far enough that he heat from the blast wouldn't kill them out right but it was enough to potentially burn them both pretty bad. The shock wave however was still a danger and if both missiles hit the sympathetic resonance between the shook waves would make things worse.

Franklin studied the image of the Majors car and scanned the map looking for something, anything that could save her and her charges life.

He found it! Up ahead was a small upcroping of hills and he crunched some numbers in his head based on the speed the car was going at, the distance to the hills and how long until the missiles hit; she could make it if just barely. It wasn't perfect but at lest the hills will block the thermal pulse and eat up some of the shock waves energy going over it. He then scanned the map to the North-West; 3D images of the air rescue team were visible and if they got any closer they risked being knocked out of the air.

Franklin called Lt. Illich over the intercom once more, "Get me Capt. Kelling on a secure line and then tell the Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie to fall back into a holding orbit."

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**4:58PM EST **

She heard her cell phone go off with the ring tone she had set aside for when the Commanders are contacting her. She grabbed it and flipped it open bringing up to her ear with a slight reluctance, command never called her directly unless it was bad.

"This is Capt. Megan Kelling speaking sir… They've what?... I…I understand sir, thank you very much sir!"

Capt. Kelling hung up her cell phone and simply dropped it, her eyes were wide; how else would you expect one to act after finding out they where about to be in the middle of a nuclear explosion with your only hope small lump of earth that just barely qualifies to be called a hill!

She glanced ahead at that sad lump that was to act as her shield, it wasn't that far and she put even more force on her foot in the vain hope that somehow if she stomped down on the accelerator pad just a little more the car would understand and eke out just a few more miles per hour.

She then kept one eye on the car's radio clock, she should of set her witch watch but she currently had the irrational fear that somehow setting it would make time advance faster, and with out looking over at him she asked William once more if he had his seatbelt on trying her best to talk calmly but failing which in turned her worry started to cause worry in the youth and he asked her, "What…. what wrong?"

"It's nothing, nothing's wrong.' She lied again, just as much to herself as to him.

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware  
><strong>**5:03PM EST **

The swarm of missiles where now 20km away from their target, suddenly they all dipped to the right and then to down and then back up to the left resembling a school fish in flight from a predator.

There was now 14km between them.

The Angel noticed and turned to look at these incoming objects, it remembered them from before, they were but a annoyance not normal worth it's time but that was before they angered it and with a flash from it's eyes twenty missiles where blotted form he sky. It fired again and again but each time the two nuclear tipped ones avoided destruction and drew closer.

60m

40m

20m

And then all became white.

**Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**5:04PM EST **

Capt. Kelling slammed down on the brakes almost forgetting she had to stop; the car skidded to a halt lunging them forward in their seats before throwing back into them and with out skipping a beat she threw off her seat belt and tossed herself over William covering him, the boy grunting as the added weight of her dug the waist strap of his seatbelt deeper into his chest.

She then closed her eyes as tight as she could and told him to do the same.

A tense heartbeat later a bright white flash filled the car then receded followed by a second brighter, longer lasting flash the enveloped everything bleeding even into the clutched eye lids of the Captain and her charge though the hills did block enough of the light it didn't become painful.

The ground started to rumble, to vibrate as the air sounded of rushing of water crossed with a stampeding heard and it grew and grew… and then….

-*BA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*-

The sound of the monstrous explosion alone was enough to rattled the car, it's windows and it's occupants teeth.

Kelling clutched William even tighter holding on to him for her own peace of mind as much as she was for his protection and then it came, rushing over the hill like a clashing wave.

It slammed into the front left hand side of the can bending the frame inward, crumpling the hood, shattering part of the windshield and driver side window showering Megan with crystallized safety glass and then a fraction of a second later the part of the blastwave that bent around the base of the hill slammed into the rear of the vehicle tearing off the trunk's door, blasting in the rear window flipping the car.

"I'm in the air…" Megan thought to herself with a calm matter of factness that for a split second surprised he.

And then.

Her world went dark.


	5. Chapter Four: Surrender

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger<strong>

**Chapter Four**

**Surrender **

**Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta,** **Virginia  
><strong>**5:36PM EST**

Secretary of Defense Gen. Robert Adams looked on at the footage showing a great ball of fire as it rose up into the heavens and the blasted out burning ruins that surrounded it with both guarded hope and despair.

It's been an half an hour since the strike and the Intruder has remained silent, it's ever present curtain of lighting had ceased and it's aurora while still there had dimmed to a faction of it's original luminosity.

"It has to be dead, it took the full blast of two nuclear bombs… there's no way it can still be alive." He thought to himself as he waited for the Nuclear Emergency Support Team to finish setting up the unmanned recon helicopter they would use to confirm whether or not the Intruder had in fact been destroyed or if was it merely waiting. But even if this particular battle was over he knew for fact this was just the beginning, this was just the vanguard!

"NEST-5 is ready to deploy." A serviceman announced.

"Give me a secure direct line to their command post and then tell them to deploy."

The footage of the devastated countryside moved to another screen and was replaced with a view of the soft top back cab of an M998 open back cargo Humvee and a voice then cracked over the intercom, "Ummmmm, sir this Ronald Quaker; commander of NEST-5, we're ready to go."

The Humvee then began to rock violently and rings of dust where kicked up around it's sides as the long dragonfly like robotic helicopter lifted off, tipped forward and flew towards the mushroom cloud.

As it drew closer to point zero brief glimpses could be caught of the giant as the rolling bands of smoke bended and parted causing a multitude of gasps at it's sight. While it was expect that a large amount of it would still be partly intact based on it's shear size most viewing this however hoped deep down that somehow that awful thing would have simply evaporated away.

"Ummm, alright sir." The NEST commander began to inform them, "First we're going to switch over to secure transmission mode, there's going to be a lot of ionization from both he mushroom cloud and the crater which could interfere with or cut off our datalink with the URAV but do to the compression needed that's going to cause the videos resolution to take a bit of a hit but we're also going to switch the camera over to DWEI mode which will let us see through the smoke and give us a slightly clearer picture despite the lower image quality."

And as he finished speaking the footage they were getting took on a grainier more pixilated quality while it's colors took on a more unnatural saturated tone and the smoke became opaque fully reviling the giant within it's veil.

The camera zoomed in focusing on the Intruder, while it's body was mostly intact it's surface was that of a heavy burn victim, most of it's skin was charred black looking like burnt paper with lesions and boils weeping a slimy purple-colored suspense, most of the bone protrusions showed little damage outside of some minor scorch marks with the exceptions of it's bony mask of a face which appeared eroded down to the underlining cartilage in it's center with the outer edges scorched soot black and brittle looking.

The NEST commander let out a whistle at this sight and blurted out, "That guy's... that guy's got some nasty burns, while I'm know medical expert I'd say this thing looks pretty dead."

The Secretary of Defense wanted to believe that as well but he wanted a far more expert opinion before he caste his lot and went to turn back to get the NERV commanders thoughts when he noticed movement on the Intruders surface, a shimmering on a baldly burnt patch of skin near it's right thigh prompting him to ask, "Ummm, NEST-5 do you… do you see that shimmering near it's right thigh?"

"Yeeee-ah, what the heck is THAT." Was the reply, the camera then paned down and zoomed in on the patch which was being enveloped by what looked like rows of bubbles and as they popped fresh unburned skin was reviled; another member of NEST-5 was heard gasping out in the background, "It… it's regretting!" And then the rate at which the bubbles appeared and popped increased and at the edge of the screen more burnt patches began to do the same, the camera zoomed back out showing this happening across it's whole body!

"It's a God damned demon!" Adm. Fletcher bleated out in dismay as a flash blared out the footage for a split second followed by another and another; Over the intercom a NEST member yelled, "We've got heavy lightning forming but no visible cloud cover… and the aurora is growing in intensity!"

Suddenly the muscles in it's short-thick neck began to convolute and twist, it's broken and burnt face mask twitching. A bulged pulsed down it and with torn sinew and a sicking tearing noise the mask popped off hanging to the side just barely connected by a few stands of flesh like a torn toenail as new, fresh, shorter beaked mask emerged from beneath. It's then moved it's neck to it's right and titled it's new face slightly looking dead on into the camera, it's eyes flared and the screen went dead.

"NEST-5 get the hell out of there!" The secretary of State yelled, as he did so the dead screen was replaced with footage showing the giant walking out through the climbing smoke of the mushroom clouds stem, it's eyes once again indiscriminately pulsing out great lances of light with a servicemen informing everyone that the Invader had begun to move in a redundant manner.

The secretary of State fought off the desire to simply crumple back down in his chair in defeat in utter dismay over just how easily this thing shrugged off an over half a megaton….. "But wait….. it was heavily injured by it…."

"Call back the bombers! Have then set up for an…" he began to order only to be cut off by the ring of a phone, THAT phone again.

"Sir?... But sir, if we hit it again we sho…. Yes sir, I understand sir."

He placed the phone back on it's receiver and gave himself a second before he complied to the command he was just given.

He then looked at the men under his command and then relayed his orders, "As of oh-eighteen hundred and seven Eastern Standard Time NORTHCOM is no longer in command of this operation, instead command is hereby transferred to Special Agency NERV…" He then turned around to face the man he was surrendering authority to, "Commander Ikari is now in command of this operation."

Commander Ikari gave a slight nod keeping his eyes fixed on the Secretary of Defenses face then replied, "I'll be transferring command to NERV HQ since it's much better ….." He let his words drop off pretending to be searching for more diplomatic words before continuing, "_equipped_ for such matters."

He then began to turn around to head towards the door as the Secretary yelled out, "Ikari!" to get his attention. Ikari turned back to face him and the Secretary then asked, "Are you sure you can beat that thing?"

Ikari pushed his tinted glasses back into place and then replied with a subtle smugness, "Of course, this is why NERV exists."

**Outside the ruins of Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy  
><strong>**5:40PM EST**

Slowly her vision came back to her, blurry and out of focus at first.

She looked up and wondered for a second why her seat was on the ceiling of the car as she felt a thousand things prick at her side and she tried to readjust herself so that she displace her weight on whatever they were in a slightly less painful way. She then noticed both that her right arm had gone numb and that her left knee felt like some great hand was squeezing it and she then began to instinctively move her arm and pump her fist to get circulation through it again.

Her mind was still slightly fuzzy, what had happen, where was she?

She felt something brush against her left shoulder, she turned to see what it was and had to force back a shock induced scream as she saw a pale skinned child hanging upside-down restrained from falling over only by his seat-belt and then it came back to her, the explosion, that nuclear blast had flipped the car and a tinge of fear came over her both for the fact she didn't know if William was alive or dead do to how pale he looked and how little he was moving as well the fact she didn't know how long she was out or if she was up wind of the fallout. She took three heavy breathes and calmed herself enough to focus and she patted Williams check while repeating, "Hey, hey William, William. Can you hear me?" and to her relief he began moving; he stretched out his arms as if he was waking form his bed and then quickly retracted his arms to clench his forehead while wincing in pain and blurting out, 'Ahhhhhhh, my head." He then let out a moan of pain then looked out at Capt. Megan Kelling his eyes wide with surprise.

First he asked, "What, what happened?" then he looked down and asked, "Why am I upside down?"

"The explosion, it flipped the car." Megan explained and despite the great protest of pain her body gave her she flipped herself over and backed herself partway out of the car through the open windshield then looked back up at William and explained, "Ok William, I'm going to help you down form the chair but after I get you down we need to hurry; I don't know how long we've been out so I don't know if the fallout…"

Williams's eyes went wide in shock.

"Fallout!" he repeated as the thought of invisible particles of energy eating away at him filled his mind.

"Yeah that was a nuclear explosion we just lived though." She informed him trying her best to deliver it in as calm a way as possible, "And... and we're going to need to keep an eye for what looks like dirty snow either falling from the sky or already on the ground and we're going to need to travel up wind since the fallout is going to mostly fall in a teardrop patter around the blast area following the direction of the wind. Thankfully I think it was under a megaton so the fallout shouldn't fall out that far ….. Pardon the unintentional bad pun."

She then sweep the area around the chair clear of as much safety glass chucks as possible and then reached up towards his seat belt buckle and then said, "OK, after I unbuckle you-you're going to need to learn to your right so you don't land on your head, I'll try to hold you up as best I can, ready?"

He took a breath then replied, "Yea….yeah." Megan then unclick his buckle and did her best to hold him up as he shifted his weight to his right side and William hit the "floor" of the car with a thud and a "Oooph!"

"Are you ok William?" Megan asked him to which he replied "Yeah." She then reminded him, "Don't forget your bag." an then slide the rest of the way out. William grabbed his bag and then followed sliding out as Megan went to stand but her left leg buckled and in a yelp of pain she fell just barely able to fall into a sitting position.

"Ms. Kelling!" William yelled as he rolled over and hoped up besides her, "Are... are you alright?" to which she replied with pain clearly in her voice, "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Megan hiked up her service dress over her left knee to find it swelled to three times it normal size.

"Shit! I must of cracked it against the dashboard!" She yelled in dismay.

She then looked up at the wide eye William and asked him, "Could you give me a hand?" He nodded and helped her up letting her rest her weight on his shoulder. Megan then looked back at the flipped wrecked of her A one-thirty and cringed, "I was so close….."

She then looked up at mushroom cloud billowing up from behind the hill and the city to the left of it which was now a sea of burning orange, reds and yellows; the thick black clots of smoke rising up their from it the tops of which where being pulled into the fireball. She glanced over at over at William, he was also staring at the burning embers of the city that has been his home for three years; the look on his face was hard to read, there was a trace of sadness and regret in it but mostly his expression said he didn't really know what to think, she then looked back up at the mushroom cloud noting how the suction of the fire ball was messing up the air flow around this area, she wasn't going to be able to tell which direction was upwind of for a while. She then took a look around and saw that there didn't _seem_ to be any fallout either falling or on the ground, at lest none she could make out, so they had some time and then she finally looked over at the hills, that copter had to be on it's way and standing on top of it would give them a better chance of spotting them... then again if the fall out came first...

"Come on William; let's take cover over by the hills." Megan told her charge, he nodded and with her on his shoulder they began to make their way over the hill's base, as they drew closer Megan heard something and motioned for William to stop.

The sound grew louder and it brought a smile to her face.

Over from behind the hill top came a tilt-rotored transport flaked by two heavy VTOL attack craft all flying her origination's logo.

Their air lift had finally come.

**NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center  
><strong>**5:42PM EST**

"We've just received confirmation that Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie has them. They report that they are a bit beat up but nothing to serious." Lt. Illich informed the Vice-Commander lifting a weight form his chest.

"It's been three years since they last saw each other." He muttered to himself and for a brief second he let himself laps into thinking that this place would bring safety to that poor child when in all reality only more danger awaited him...

**In the air above Arlington, Virginia  
><strong>**5:48PM EST**

Commander Ikari looked out the window down at the country side below letting a smile once more crack the cold exterior of his face.

Everything so far had gone just the way he wanted it to and soon their newest pilot would be delivered and his plan would finally be set in motion.

"Soon, soon it will be the time... I hope you can wait just a little longer..."

**In the air above Grasonville, Delaware  
><strong>**5:50 PM EST**

82 km away from the commander's flight Capt. Megan Kelling too was glancing out the window next her out at the country side below.

She was not in a pleasant mood.

It wasn't do to the fact that a medic was placing a brace around her smashed knee and she'd be stuck using crutches for at lest 2 weeks. Granted it was part of it but it still wasn't quite what pushed her over the edge.

Nor was it the fact that her baby, her pride and joy was now just a pile of twisted wreckage. Granted that was also a part of it but still not what set her off.

No, it was the fact that she had just found out that THING, that monster... was still alive...

But... now how where they going to stop it? Where they just going to nuke it till it stop? NERV couldn't do anything yet, they had no useable... no... they couldn't be... he had no training...

She looked over at William, he was a bit banged up but thankfully nothing major; a bit out of it though from everything but that was understandably... he was a strong kid, stronger then he seemed to realize.

She hadn't told him the news yet, no need to bother him with it... he.. he didn't need to worry about it.. it wasn't his concern anymore... unless...

No... they couldn't be expecting him to do that... they just couldn't.

Sixteen minutes later the transport craft touched down.

"… no that's ok, I got it from here." Capt. Kelling informed the head of the medic team who had put them through a small order of hell patching them up on the way over here.

She looked down at the brace around her left knee then tested her weight against the clutch she would need to assist her walking for the next two weeksand then looked overto her charge standing at her right. She offered him her hand and said, " Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've had a pair of these. I'll be fine. Now come on William, let's go." and led him down the transport's ramp and out on to the asphalt.

William looked out at this new place cringing slightly at the sound of the distant air raid sirens and the memories that will now be forever associated with them. Up ahead was a small bland building she was leading him to that looked like an squat upside-down pale made of white concrete that had an open entrance behind which was what appeared to be a train station style turn-stall guarded by two men wearing grayish white uniforms with a red version of those "commando caps' he seen soldiers have on TV armed holding small sleek-looking machine the right was a large heavily occupied parking lot and behind all this was a small bleak looking city whose skyline was dominated by large construction equipment and three tall structures on the far end of it that looked like a hollow cylinder cut in half with highly relative glass surface on the inside of the cylinder.

He looked over at Ms. Kelling and asked her, "Mis…. Megan, where, where are we?"

"Oh here?" She began to answer, "This is one of the entrances to my base of operations, NERV HQ."

"No I meant the location. You know, "where on the map"?"

"Oh, we're just outside D.C.." She then pointed towards the empty looking city, "While they're still working on it but most of the city has been rebuilt already."

Williams mind shot back to his guardian telling him about the terrorist nuke set off here fifteen years ago that kicked off a world war which in turn brought him back to the events of today, the emotions of terror and confusion and pain, that…. thing Ms. Kelling called Angel, all those weapons used against it to no affect and all the lives that had to be lost to it.

And then there was the nuke they used, just thinking about it made his heart beat faster, his hands clench, his eyes widen. Why was this happening? Why did his father want to see him now?

"Wait!" William shot out to Ms. Kelling, "If.. if this is the capital... ummmm isn't... isn't there still radiation?"

She shook her head no and replied, "Oh no, we got that all cleared out; it wasn't that big of a bomb and it was a pretty modern design so there wasn't much fallout. We were just keeping the idea of there area being irradiated to keep people out while we were rebuilding. Once we're done rebuilding it's going to become the capital again, switching it back in from New York."

"Oh." William replied back, a bit more reinsured as they passed by the guards who gave the Captain a firm salute and they made their way over to the turn-stalls.

Megan looked over at William and asked, "Hey William, you still got that temporary ID your dad sent you right?"

A puzzled look came over him at first and then it hit him, "Ummm, yeah. Yeah I do."

He unzipped the top of his bag and after rummaging through some clothing he half pulled out a large manila envelope, opened it and pulled out an army green NERV new recruit primer guide still with it's tamper proof tape still intact along with a crinkled folded piece of paper. He then slid the primer guide back in, unfolded the paper, which Megan noticed had a scribbled out note from his father on it and in fact the whole note had previously been torn apart and then carefully tape back together telling her more then words could of his relationship with him, which held the card and then presented it to her for confirmation.

"Yeah that's it." She replied with a nod, she then pointed at his duffel bag and told him, "You also might want to start going over that guide, we sent it to you for a reason you know."

"Oh! I'm, I'm sorry…. I just didn't… get around to it." He replied back in embarrassment quickly pulling the guide back out while putting his fathers note back in the envelope. He then broke the tape around the booklet and started to flip though it.

"I didn't mean right now." Megan chided him with a giggle, "But whatever, come on let's get you home."

"_Home_." That word shot though William stirring up a kaleidoscope of associated memories back when he still lived with father and the mother who he lost while so young, her face was lost to time with only blurred images and emotions left to him and then to being left, abandoned...

He came to from being able to push his memories back in as Ms. Kelling was explaining something to him, as she talked she swiped a card through a reader on one of the turn-stalls, there was a beep and a green light lit up. "And then you just walk though the turnstile." She finished doing the same steeping out on the other side of the barrier.

He nodded his head pretending to have been paying attention, swiped his card and passed though the turnstile after which Ms. Kelling lead him down a short ramp onto a forking platform lined with four short train cars that reminded him of the type used as express rail shuttles at large airports but only colored a drab military gray. They then made their way to the second train car from the left and William looked on puzzlingly at Ms. Kelling as she pulled out her battered cell phone, dialed something on it and the train car lit up and opened it's sliding doors; she then look back to him with a smile and a wink that read, "Ain't that cool?"

They boarded and after they took to the seats she enter another command into her phone and the train car departed.

William glanced quickly out the window behind him only to see darkness briefly illuminated every couple of feet by yellow side light and from the slight tilt of them he could tell they were going down, he then looked over at Ms. Kelling thinking of starting a conversation about… well he didn't know yet and while part of him did wish to talk to her, she was nice and…...

The other part rather just wanted be left alone, it's easier that way but he needed to do something to take the edge off of the emotions that were whirling around him both from what had happen as well as what is about to, but after seeing that she was busy fixing her knee brace he found it a good enough excuse to drop it and instead he opened the booklet, flipped past it's table of contents to he found the

first page with text and began to read:

**002459-CFM-72 ****NERV**

This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide is for issuance to NERV personal only. If you are not a NERV personal member turn this manual over to the nearest available police, army or NERV station. Unauthorized use of this manual can carry fines of up to $10, 000 or up to 5 years in prions or both.

This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide will instruct you in all necessary protocol, duties and regulations you will be excepted to comply to as well as provide combatant commanders with trained and ready

forces capable of decisive action across the range of military operations and spectrum of conflict and technical personal with a full run down of the skills needed and the programs they will be handling.

As a member of NERV the highest degree of discipline and professionalism will be expected of you as you will be handling or in charge of some of the most advanced material ever developed and failure to use these tools properly will cost live….

Eventually the text blurred into an unreadable mess of it's own dryly written mediocrity as he quickly lost interest in really reading it and instead he began flipping threw it hoping to find a chart, graph or picture that would catch his eye but going through it only started to make things more and more real and his mind filled with the memory of the day father left him, of himself standing there in tears as he walked away from him leaving him with his guardian, a friend of father from his lodge who he would live with for the next seven years of his life….. though it wasn't that bad living with him, while he cold and somewhat remote he... he wasn't to unkind, it was just that he….

After that father only would come to see him once a year... once a year on THAT day... and then that year they fought and he left his guardian, his father, all of it and lived on his own in that city that was now a ruin of fire…

"Ms. Kelling… am I…. am I really going to be seeing my father?" William asked without raising his head from the booklet.

Megan stared at him for a second and then answered, "Ummm, while given what's gong on it might not be right away but yeah, you'll be seeing him soon."

He looked over at her with air of disappointment and replied, "Oh."

"Don't get along with your father huh?" She asked with a laugh, "Looks like you and I got something in common them."

William shot his head up surprised to hear her say that. He stated to ask her about what she meant by that only to have his eyes briefly over powered by sunlight, he blinked the stars from his eyes to find himself steering out in shock at what laid beyond it; rows of large armored skyscrapers where…. hanging from the ceiling!

He couldn't believe his eyes as he looked up at them again to confirm that what he saw was really happening as Ms. Kelling giggled to herself at his surprise.

Yeah, there were really large armored buildings hanging from the top of a large domed ceiling laid out in a cruciform like arrangement while sun light shined down from large panels around it.

From what he could tell he was in a large underground hemisphere that he guessed to be at lest 4 miles wide by over a mile high with a forested area at the bottom at the center of which was a strange, large pyramid shape building with what appeared to be a invited one filled with water next to it. He shot a gasped look over to Ms. Kelling in hopes of some kind of explanation for what he was seeing.

She was already ready for his inevitable surprise with a smirk already in place. "This is the Geofront, NERV's hidden intercept base and if all goes to plan this place will become a fortress for all mankind."


	6. Chapter Five: Reunion

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger<strong>

**Chapter Five  
><strong>**Reunion**

**NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center  
><strong>**5:49PM EST**

"No sir, there hasn't been any change in angel's course. It's predicted destinations is still the same." Lt. Illich informed the vice-commander.

"So, look's like it is coming straight here." Franklin though to himself, "Those damn old men were right... Well no point in complaining now."

The vice-commander straightened his postured and wore determined look on his face as he yelled, "Alright, tell all forward batteries to open fire on that son of a bitch as soon as it enters range! Target it's feet and the ground around them, don't worry about stopping it. We just need to buy a little more time."

**Geofront 01 under Washington D.C., NERV First Branch Command Pyramid liner station B-22 Echo  
><strong>**5:50PM EST**

The train came to a stop and Megan grabbed her crutches, stood up and motioned for William to do the same.

"Alright William, I got something neat I gotta show ya." she told him as they made their way to the door. "What... what is it?" William asked as they walked, their steeps echoing out onto the boarding platform as they made their way over to a row of elevators to their left.

"It's a secret." She answered with a wink, "You'll like it, trust me. Just follow me and we'll be there in no time."

**Central Dogma B-21  
><strong>**6:09PM EST**

"Now where was I suppose... hmmmm... Oh I should of made a left once we passed High Energy Lab B-22..." Megan half mumbled to herself as she looked over her map of the bases layout trying to make heads or tails of where she was going.

William meanwhile was looking over the NERV manual once more so tired was of seeing the same drab identical looking narrow gray corridors again and again and again...

They past through yet another hexagonal shaped Security door and William was caught off guard by a sudden, powerful up draft do to a change in pressure as the entered the next chamber leading to a people-mover cat walk crossing a huge chasm filled with piping, air ducts and other utilities. Noticing Williams surprise at the up draft Megan remarked, "Yeah, it's things like that-that make me regret having to wear a skirt around here, they really need to fix that. But don't worry, once we get to the elevators on the other side we'll be back in business."

At lest that's what she hoped.

"Are... are you new here Megan?" William asked peeking up from his book after finally building up the courage.

"Yeah, I just got here the other day, I was originally stationed out at one of the German branches when I started working for NERV." She answered as they made their way to the elevators.

"Oh." German branch? How many NERV bases were there?

"Yeaaaah, as you can see I'm still kinda learning the layout of this place... it's pretty a pretty big place." She added as she went to hit the button to call the elevator but before she could even touch it the door to her right opened on it's own and William saw Megan rear back in surprise while saying in an apologetic tone, "S... sorry for being late." with a force laugh at the end to someone on the other side of her.

"You know we don't have the time or man power to be running around after you, especially in a time like this!" came a reply from the other side of the door in a stern females voice as William made his way over.

"Hey I returned him in one piece, mostly, didn't I Rachel? Cut me a little slack, not like I knew this was going to happen today." Megan shot back sounding a little more confident as she finally stepped into the elevator, holding the door for William.

William followed on in finally getting to see the tall blonde hair women wearing what looked to be a lab coat that Ms. Kelling was talking too. He looked up at her stern blue eyes and knew why she seemed to be scared of her.

The women Ms. Kelling called Rachel selected a floor and then glance over at the boy and then back to Kelling.

"So he's the one hum?" She asked the captain, her tone taking on a lighter feel.

"Yeah, that's the trouble maker." Megan replied back with a laugh.

William started to feel nervous, closed in... he wasn't use to people talking about him... ..

Rachel looked back over at William as he went back to reading his NERV manual with a smirk, "Well boy, you have any idea how much trouble you've caused us trying to find you?"

"Oh! S... sorry..." The boy replied looking up from it briefly.

Rachel let out a slight laugh and said, "Well at lest you're finally here." She then leaned in closer to him and introduced herself, "Now in case you're wondering my name is Dr. Rachel Ammadon. I'mmmm... basically in charge of a bunch of science stuff around here to keep things simple. And now that's out of the way we've got something I need to show you. If I left it to her you'd never make it to where you need to go."

"Hey! It's not my fault that I'm new here and this place is ridiculously huge!" Megan shot back in protest as William replied, "Nice.. nice to met you Dr. Ammadon." lowering the book and greeting her with a nod.

"Quite the stuffy formal one aren't you?" She remarked back at his tone and mannerisms.

"Yeah, in that regard he is just like his father." Megan interjected much to Williams dismay, he didn't like being talk about and liked being compared to his father even less... he was nothing like that man...

"Ohh, looks like you hit a nerve there captain." Rachel laughed noticing Williams reaction.

"So... so.. why... why am I here? I mean outside of this surprise you have to show me?" William quickly asked both wanting to know why he came all this way here and to change the subject.

"Oh that's a secret." Rachel answered, "You'll see soon enough but what I can tell you it's going to be really important. But for now let's keep it a surprise ok?"

Something about that fact filled him with a sense of dread...

**Central Dogma B-20  
><strong>**6:15PM EST**

"Sooooooo what's the chances that it's going to fully activate?" Megan asked looking over the doctor as she leaned back against the guard railing of the large cargo lift they were taking to take a load off from her crutches.

"Hmmmm, as of right now I'd say it's a zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero oh-nine percent chance of working." Rachel answered back nonchalantly.

"Gahhh!" Megan balked not liking the odds.

"Hey, at lest it's not zero." Rachel countered with a smirk.

"It is if you round." Megan shot back sticking out her tongue.

"How's the leg?" Rachel asked raising an eye brow as she looked down at Megan's brace.

"Gonna be out for the next two weeks, not gonna be able to put to much weight on it for at lest a month after that."

"Ouch, well at lest this time you don't need to be embarrassed to tell people how you got this one, not like that last one when the three of us went skiing, "Ohhhh the novice hill is for wimps."" Rachel reminded her chiding her friend.

"Never gonna live that down am I? " Megan replied dryly. "It's been what, like seven years now?"

"Yeah... those were good times." Rachel remarked while tilting her head back letting the nostalgia of younger days roll over her.

William, still buried nose deep in his book, failed to notice the massively large arm out stretched into a fist encased in purpleish-pink liquid behind a large transparent aluminum container that almost seemed to be lunging out at them as their lift passed by...

**Central Dogma B-20 entrance to Staging Cage 03  
><strong>**6:35PM EST**

Rachel led them through a bay filled with large dark greenish cargo containers and then down corridor that ended with a large well armored door guarded by two more soldiers like the ones who were guarding the station above. As they came to attention and saluted the two women Rachel pulled out a pass card and ran it through a reader and there was a beep followed by the sound of massive hydraulic lines depressurizing and the massive door slid open and she walked in followed by Megan and then by the boy. Once past the door William entered a small room with another door at the end and rows of large coats like the kind you see people wear in the arctic lining the side walls, Rachel grabbed two, tapped William on his shoulder to get his attention and handed him one while telling him, "It's going to be a bit on the cold side in that next room, it might be a bit big though... but it shouldn't be by much."

He took it with a , "Oh,,, thank you." and put it on while Rachel help Megan with hers. She was right; it was a bit big but still doable and after everyone had their coats on Rachel slid her card through another reader and the door at the end of the room open as a wave of cold, heavy air came rolling in and they all stepped through onto a railed catwalk that was spanning over a large vat of the strange pinkish-purples liquid that seemed to be the source of the cold, at the end was a large metal wall with yet another door.

"Just how many did they need to go though to get were they were going?" William thought to himself growing a bit impatient despite his growing worry... what could be so important and need someone like him at the same time... and why was it closed behind so many doors?

Once again Rachel open the door at the end of the platform with a swipe of her card and William followed them through to another longer railed catwalk with yet another door at the end that had a lift next to it that lead upward with another batch of that purple cooling liquid beneath them and then something told William to look up from his book and to the left, like he felt some great presence staring at him. He turned his head and dropped his book letting out a yell of shock and horror at what he saw.

Steering right at him with narrow eyes was a large metallic masked face.

"What the hell is an angle doing here?" William yelled in disbelief at seeing the giant that stood before him. He turned to Megan, "Is this the first one? You said the one we nuked was number two... you guys already had one? Why.. .why didn't you warn people?"

"William it's not an..." Megan began to explain until Rachel shot her a stern look.

"Well I guess it can't be help, he was going to know sooner or later." Rachel thought to herself. She faced William telling him, "No, it's not an angel."

"Then what is it?"

Rachel looked up at the giant face, "This is Evangelion Unit 01, a weapon developed here in secret to fight the angels."

"Evangelion?" William looked over the giant, it's massive semi-humanoid shark like masked head clad in purple (of all colors) armor with a single large horn like protrusion coming out of it's forehead, a large open ceratopsid like frill coming off from it's sides and long pointed chin coming of a what looked like a mouth that almost seemed to be grinning...

Outside of that only a small amount of it's neck and shoulders which the "walls" of this room clamped around were visible; the rest was beneath that freezing purple liquid.

... why... why did something about it seem...

William's mind filled with questions but the most important one that came to him was as he turned to look between Megan and the doctor.

"Did father build this? Was this what he was working on?"

"That is correct." A voice answered from seemingly all directions at once, a voice all to familiar to William, a voice he truly wasn't ready to hear yet.

William looked around trying to find where the voice came from, he looked up and standing in an semi-enclosed observation station hanging from the ceiling was a man with a cold, piercing stare.

"Father..."

Gregory Ikari looked down at his son, it was now time for it to be set in motion.

"Get the new pilot prepped for operations and then begin launch procedures." The Commander of the first branch of NERV ordered.

"You can't be serious!" Megan yelled out to Rachel in protest despite knowing all to well the boys fate deep down inside after finding out the angel had survived but hearing it out loud and seeing the look on the young boys face was too much, "He just got here! It took Ayanami seven months to just synchronize with her Eva let alone to learn how to use it enough to fight in combat!"

"All he needs to do is sit in the cockpit, we don't expect anymore then that." The doctor shot back, anger crossing her face at the captain's insubordination.

"We need someone who can do more then that if we expect him to survive!" Megan countered letting her emotions get the better of her.

"Listen Capt. Kelling, if we have someone who has even the slightest chance of synchronizing with an Eva it is our duty to at lest make an effort; untold lives are at stake here!" Rachel explained as calmly as she could reminding the captain of her duty.

William was oblivious to the two women fighting, at first what his father had ordered didn't sink. Instead he was thinking about what he could possible have to say to his father... then it finally hit him.

No... there was no way father could mean that...

Could he?

"Father!"He yelled out, "What's going one here? Why did you send for me?"

"Because I have a need for you, you are here as pilot for that Evanglion Unit in front of you and you are needed to sortie out." Was his fathers answer.

"Pilot? Sortie?" William repeated in confusion, "What do you mean father? Pilot? Pilot that thing? How? I'm just a kid! I've never seen anything like this before? How could you expect me to pilot it?"

"Because you are the only one who can, you will be instructed on how to operate it. You have two choices right now, you can either except your responsibility and pilot the Evangelion or you can leave. Make your choice quickly, we do not have the time waste on your indecisiveness." His father answered once more, his tone now growing inpatient.

"Time? You tell me all this and expect me just to except it just like that? What the hell is so damn important that you don't have the time for me FATHER?" William yelled back on the verge of tears, the coldness of his father tearing at him.

"Because the angel will be here shortly and if we don't have an Eva Unit ready by then we will have no means of stopping it."

"The angel? But.. but we nuked it... " William protested.

Megan was the one to answer, "It.. it survived the blast... I'm sorry for keeping it from you William..."

The boys eyes went wide. He couldn't believe this...

"It survived a nuclear blast and I'm expected to fight it in this over sized action figure? This... this is just crazy... there... there's no way I can be expected to do this... that anybody could be expected... I can't... I just can't!"

Megan came closer to the boy and in the most comforting voice she could muster, "William... I.. I know this is hard... and we're... I'm asking lot of you but we really do need you... a lot of lives are counting on this. Please... please don't run away from this." She hated having to do this but Rachel was right, far too much was hanging on this.

William looked up at Ms. Kelling in almost disbelief at what she was saying. He then shot a glance over to Rachel just for her to tell him flat out,"Just do it."

How can all these people expect me to stand against that monster... to pilot this giant... thing... how can the put this all on me...

"No... I .. can't... just can't.. I'm sorry..." William apologized, this was just too much for him to bear. Was this all father wanted? Was this all that I am to him?

**Observational command box, Staging Cage 03  
><strong>**6:43PM EST**

The commander was done with this, he had no time to waste on an uncooperative child. He hit a button on the counsel to his right and a screen showing the vice-commander appeared.

"Franklin, the third child is unusable." Ikari informed his second in command, "Wake up Rei."

"Wake her up? The vice-commander replied back in shock that he'd even entertain the thought of using her in her current state, "But... she's in no condition to pilot... .."

"She not dead yet." The commander coldly cut him off with.

"I.. I understand." Franklin reluctantly complied.

A split second later a new face was visible on the screen.

"Rei?" Ikari asked the figure in the screen, his voice taking on a softer tone.

"Yes sir?" a weak, strained feminine voice replied.

"I need you to pilot Unit 01, our new pilot refuses." He informed the the girl.

"Understood." She wisped out as her screen went black.

A voice then came over his intercom announcing, "Angel: Zero-Two has broken through the final defensive line, it will be arriving in the D.C. built up zone in five minutes.

**Main umbilical bridge Staging Cage 03  
><strong>**6:44 PM EST**

Rachel shot a disappointed look at William and then ordered, "Alright, dump the current one and set OS compatibility to Rei's." She then shot a look over at Megan, "Capt. Kelling, get THAT child out of here."

Megan nodded and put a hand on Williams shoulder, "I.. I'm sorry I had to put you through all of this. To put all of this on a child."

William lowered his head in defeat in reply, he new it. His father didn't want him after all...

"Alright William, let's go." Megan told him as she started to lead him back out the way they came in but before they got to the door it opened on it's own as three medics brought in a stretcher.

William looked over at the stretcher and found himself drawn to it the person on it; it was girl, maybe no older then him, wearing what looked to be an armor like suit of some kind. The area of the suit around the shoulders were removed showing that bandages wrapped most of her chest. Her left arm also was in a cast and a IV ran into her right one.

Then he saw her face... it was almost identical to the girls he saw when the bombing began, the only difference he could make out was that she lacked the blue hair and red eyes of the other and instead she had simple black hair and brown eyes … at lest her right one was brown, the other one had a patch covering it.

"….. What happened to this girl?" William thought as Megan noticed his shocked look and asked him, "Is anything wrong? It looks like you just seen a ghost."

But before she could receive an answer she found her self struggling to keep her footing as the whole room shook violently, over the intercom it was announced, "Angel: Zero-Two has opened fire on the city, direct hit on the central block. The first three armored layers have been preached!"

The room shook again and again!

"Armor layers four through ten have now been beached... wait... some of the buildings in the central block have been structurally weakened... several have just broken lose! Brace for impact!"

Eight tense seconds later the massive armored buildings stuck ground sending powerful shock waves surging throughout NERV HQ. Megan, Rachel, William and the medics struggled to keep standing but failed and t he girl on the stretcher was thrown to the ground while several hundred feet above William several light fixtures were knocked lose and started falling towards him!

William looked up an noticed the incoming death and instinctively went to curl up, Megan forced her body up ignoring the protest coming from her knee trying to cover the distance to shield boy with her body but it would be no use; there was no way she could cover the ground quickly enough and it all seemed hopeless for the child as the debris set to rain down on him when something unexpected happened; with the sound of metal giving the walls that locked the Eva's massive right shoulder down gave and up sprang form the purple coolant a massive armored arm whose giant hand reached out and covered William, blocking him from the wreckage!

One of the fragments bounce off and shot up at observation box the commander stood in just barely being deflected by the glass wall that allowed him to look over the area, as this happened Ikari just stood there seemingly unfazed by all this with a look of simple satisfaction.

Back on the umbilical bridge Rachel looked at the out stretched arm covering the shocked child with disbelief. She got her self back up and yelled over her comlink, "Can any body tell my just what in the hell happened? How the hell did it's arm move, this can't have happened?"

"The termination plug is still in it ma'am, there were no impulses recorded by the Magi... everything says that just didn't happen!" Lt. Illich replied.

Megan also stood in disbelief at what had happened, did it just protect him? Did the Evangelion just act of it's own will to protect something? But... how? How could a machine do that?

William just laid there shocked for a second looking up in terror at the massive hang raised over him. What... what the hell just happened? He slowly sat himself up and looked around and saw that girl on the ground flinching in pain and something overcame him and before he even realized what he was doing he made he was over to her holding her, trying to bring the girl some comfort while the medics helped themselves up and made their way over. William found himself lost looking at her face, it was was a surprisingly beautiful face but so full of pain right now, he then noticed that he had a bad grip on her and adjusted where his right hand helped propped her up only for her to wince and let out a gasp of pain. He quickly withdrew his hand to find it... it was full of blood.

Were they really going to send this girl out there to fight that thing? He looked up and over at the giant masked face of the machine they wanted him to pilot... He then looked back down at this poor girl.

No, it wasn't fair... but someone had to do it.. but …..

Every fibber of his begin wanted to leave, to run away, to forget this day ever happened but... then there was this broken girl in his arms...

"I mustn't run away."

"But how can I?"

"I can't let them do this to that poor girl, I mustn't run away."

"But this is insane!"

"They said so many people are going to die if I don't... maybe even this girl, I mustn't run away!"

"But how can you let father win?"

"Because I won't, that's why I wont run away."

William looked up once more at the face of this thing they called an Evangelion then over at Megan who was looking back at him with great concern in her eyes.

He then looked up at his father leering down from above.

"I'll do it! I'll do it father! I'll pilot this God damned thing!"


	7. Chapter Six: Fear

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger<strong>

**Chapter Six  
><strong>**Fear**

**Washington D.C. Metropolitan area just outside of Capital Heights  
><strong>**6:52PM EST**

As the Angel began to advanced on the city it's behavior began to change.

It would periodically stop and fire great lances of light at the city, some of the shots would fly random and others would strike at the armored layers that covered NERV HQ slowly opening a path to the Geofront below. It would then pace back and forth almost like an agitated cat and then it would begin it's walk again towards the city for a bit and start this pattern over again.

No one was sure why it was acting like this, all they new was that it despite it's odd behavior it was still approaching the city much faster then anyone cared.

**Staging Cage 03  
><strong>**6:53PM EST**

Meanwhile two thousands meters below the city hundreds of NERV technicians swarmed into action having locked the Eva's arm back down checking and double checking every single one of the Evagelion's systems, equipment and operational software trying their best to not only making sure that whatever that earlier "incident was" wouldn't pose any problems but to get this weapon ready in time as well as making sure that it'll be at one hundred percent operational capacity when they send it into it's first combat duty as the drainage bulge pumps are stressed near their bursting point trying to drain the coolant from the Eva's cage as fast as possible.

It was now a race against time.

**Main Pilot Boarding Platform, Staging Cage 03  
><strong>**6:56 PM EST**

William stood on a platform that over looked the back end of this thing he had reluctantly agreed to pilot with an open shirt with a bunch of electrodes attached to his chest leading to a device strapped to his pants that he found himself fiddling with while that Dr. Rachel Ammadon person explained how this Evangelion thing worked... or was trying, William mostly stood there nodding with a blank look on his face as the incredible technicalities of how this thing worked mostly washed over him.

Behind the doctor were two NERV technical personal in red jump suits while behind him was a large chair like thing that reminded him more like of some kind of torture device that was attached to some kind of robot like crane arm and behind that just off from the platform was a large white cylindrical tube marked with various warning and danger labels that he was told was called an "entry plug" which seemed to be it's cockpit and to his left was a rimmed basin on the floor with a drain in the center of it that he hadn't the slightest clue as to what it's purpose was.

He also finally got a good look at the Eva since they now had drained most of that pool of strange liquid which thankfully brought the temperature up a bit making it a bit more bearable to have his shirt open. It was massive, that was for sure; possibly as big as that thing he had to fight... 40 meters tall from what he was told which if he remember how metric converted into imperial made it about 132 feet. It was also a surprisingly human looking machine, well sort of. From what he could tell it seemed to have a strangely thin waist and extremely broad shoulders, not as extreme as the Angel's but still outside the human norm. It's whole body was covered in purple colored armor like it's head with a few dash of green highlights here and there and it had a large heavily armored shell like compartment on it's back but all this did little to wilt the fear that clawed at him, it was pretty impressive to be sure but William still wasn't convinced that it could stand against the Angel.

"You know, you really shouldn't be fiddling with those wires, we kinda need them to keep track of your vitals." Dr. Ammadon warned him trying to get his attention back to what she was explaining.

"Oh.. sorry..." William apologized as he tried to regain his focus.

"Don't worry, later we'll have a proper plug suit for you. They do the same thing as that mess of wires as well as offer you some basic protection and life support functions." she reassured him, "Now remember William, you don't control this thing like car or any other vehicle you would be familiar with. Instead it uses an extremely advance mind machine interface to let you control it like it was your body, you pilot it like you pilot yourself. Alright, any questions?"

Those he did, more then he could ever hope to ask about all this but he new his time was short so he thought about it and reasonably asked,"Ummmm... why.. why is it that you need me to pilot it? Or that girl Rei? I mean why not some, you know, trained soldiers or something?"

"Well the short answer is we don't know fully... You see in order to get the precision we needed to make the Eva practical we had to invent brand new ways to get the human mind to interface with a machine and well... there's still a few quirks we haven't worked out, namely that they're not only extremely picky with WHO they synchronize with but what age group they do. We were hoping to have this worked out before the angels attacked buut... consideration doesn't seem to be one of their strong points. Ok, we've got time for one more question but then we need to get you out there."

"They're sending me out in a weapon that still has "quirks"?" Part of him wanted his next question to be, "Are you all crazy?" but... he thought better of it and instead asked about something that was nagging him about it since he first saw it's "face".

"Why... why is it... _purple_?"

That question earned a laugh from the doctor, "Well you see the Eva's are suppose to draw the angels away from the city and to make sure they stand out enough for them to do that we felt colors that clashed with the city scape would work best, think of it like how male birds use bright flashy colors to draw predators away from their mates."

"To draw predators away from their mates." William repeated in his mind. Her answers to his questions didn't make the idea of this any easier... but... it was to late to turn back now... it was time to get things moving.

"Alright, let's get you boarded." The doctor told the young pilot as she walked closer to him pulling an odd hair band like device with two grayish horn like protrusions upper top corners and then handed it to him saying, "Here, put this on sliding the bends there around your ears. It might look goofy but it'll boost your brains connection with the Eva. Think of it like a cell phone antenna for your brain."

William nodded and then put it on running his hand over one of the protrusions.

Then the two NERV techs walked him over to the pilot seat, helping him up onto it while the tech to his right told him, "Don't worry son, you're in good hands."

They then strapped him in holding down his chest and limbs and closed a cover that encased all of his body but his face giving the impression he was inside of a metal sarcophagus.

The right hand tech then asked him, "How do you feel? Anything too tight?"

He didn't know how to really answer him but replied, "Umm no... I'm.. fine."

"That a boy." The tech said trying to comfort him, "I know your scared but you'll pull through this; you got all of us watching your back ok.?"

Strangely enough his words did make him feel slightly better...

The tech then double checked all the locks and restraints and then warned him, "Alright, I got to lock in the final piece now, it's going to cover your face and it's going to be dark for a little bit so hang in there."

William nodded and the final cover was slide into place turning his world to darkness and now the weight of this was now starting to come down on him, he stated to breath heavier, panicking and then felt himself moving. It stopped for a second and then he felt himself being lowered, the chair came in contact with something metallic and then he heard lock bolts click into place.

Over an internal intercom he heard a females voice announce, "Throne has been inserted, removing termination plug... Plug removed, lowering entry plug."

He then felt himself being tilted forward at an angle and then lowered again until he felt the plug made contact with something.

The same announcer then said, "Inserting entry plug." and suddenly he felt himself begin spun around four times ending with the announcer exclaiming, "Plug inserted, all lights are green."

**Command Center  
><strong>**7:00PM EST**

Megan was standing at her spot on the Ops. station deck between Lieutenants Illich and Haynes carefully watching William being loaded into the Eva while the commander and vice-commander watch from their tower above, a door opened on the other side of the deck as Rachel made her way from the staging cage taking her position opposite of the captains.

"Plug inserted, all lights are green." Lt. Illich informed everyone as the entry plug finished twisting and locking into place. A large armored hatch then closed and locked over area securing the plug.

She then announced, "Attaching umbilical cable." A large cable was lowered and hooked up to plug just under the armored "shell" that covered the entry plug, "Voltage is nominal, moving onto LCL insertion; filling the throne."

**Entry Plug  
><strong>**7:01PM EST**

"Filling the throne? " William thought to himself... "With what? "

Suddenly he felt water seep into his shoes and then up his pants leg and then to his waist...

Flooding! This thing he was locked into was flooding!

"Help me! I'm going to drown! Why the hell is there water filling this thing?" William yelled in terror and confusion as he tried to move momentarily forgetting that his limbs were strapped down.

"Well if you paid attention to what I was telling you-you would of known this was going to happen." Rachel scolded him over the line, "Once your lungs fill with LCL you'll be oxygenated directly, you can breath this stuff. It also acts as a medium to transmit your mental waves to the Eva. Don't worry just breath it in."

You can what? He had never heard of a liquid you could breath before but as he was thinking about it the liquid was now up to his chin and even though he knew that he could breath it instinctively it didn't feel right and fought against it as much as possible trying to keep his noise above the water line and then holding breath once the whole compartment was filled but he was never good at holding his breath and he had to let go and exhale and all he could inhale was that liquid and he panicked, he felt the liquid fill his lungs and once again tried to move his bounded limbs in a desperate, instinctive bid to free himself while Megan cringed as she watched his vitals spike all over the place, she could only imagine how terrifying it had to be to go through this the first time...

He knew it, he could feel it. He was drowning... but... he wasn't it.

William slowly regained control of himself as realized he WAS breathing... only without actually breathing... it was just like the doctor said... but knowing something and going through it were two very different things.

He now felt slightly calmer, feeling the liquid surround his body was comforting... somehow it felt safe here now... somehow familiar.

The only thing that bothered him was the smell, it had the smell of blood.

William then reared back in shock as his mind's eye exploded in white light followed by electric patterns of neural circuitry printed in surging geometric shapes...

**Command Center  
><strong>**7:02PM EST**

The air in the command center took on a tense tone as they moved into the next part of the activation, a sequence that need the captains or the commanders permission to begin.

"Begin synchronization." Megan ordered followed by Lt. Illich acknowledging, "Understood, beginning synchronization."

Rachel Leaned in over Lt. Mary Illich's shoulder watching her display carefully as the lieutenant began a countdown, "Passing C one-twenty, C one-thirty, C one-forty, approaching the absolute boarder line..."

At that everyone on the deck eye's were on that screen...

..."C-one fifty." Lt. Illich continued, "C-one sixty, C-one-seventy, the boarder line has been reached..."

The chart on her screen held there struggling to climb to the next number and then...

"C-one eighty! We are passed the absolute boarder line!" She informed everyone with exuberance returning to her tone.

The tension was lifted from the command center as it's personal sighed a collective sight of relief.

Lt. Illich then announced, "The pilot is now synchronized with the Eva. Synchronization rate is... my god! It's 44.3%!"

"44%!" Rachel repeated in amazement, this kid might have potential after all!

**Entry Plug  
><strong>**7:03PM EST**

The young Eva pilot had no idea how to express what he was going through right now.

As he looked on various pieces of equipment around the area would suddenly become highlighted as a box would appear within his vision with a list of details on said object.

He looked down and saw the Eva's body... and his own at the same time, like they were somehow super imposed over one another...

He looked to his left and he could see the Eva's shoulder enclosed by the wall of the cage as well as his own.

He could feel the metal of the Eva's armor and he could feel his own skin at the same time... as well as something else.

He felt so disorientingly huge and yet so insignificantly small at the same time.

Another box appeared in his vision, this time it was an image of Megan, needless to say he found seeing her now reassuring.

"Hey William, how are you? You hanging in there?" He heard her say to him as if she was speaking right into his head.

"I... I feel... weird... it's like I have two bodies at one time." He replied trying to find a way to describe this.

"I bet. Now don't worry, this is only since you're new at this. It'll feel more natural as you build up your synchronization with the Eva."Megan reassured him, "Oh, and hey. Guess what?"

"Hum? What is it?"

"You've just broke our first time synchronization record, by a long shot!" Megan told him hoping that would boost his confidence. "Ok now, William, see if you can move your hands." Megan then instructed him.

While they felt odd he did so with no problems, the hands of the Eva following his movement.

"Umm... yeah... I can."He replied, "They still feel kinda odd but I can move them.. and... yeah the Eva is following my movement... this... this is kinda neat."

"Ok, that's very good. Now listen up, we're running out of time here and... and I know how scary this is going to be for you but... I need you to keep your cool out there and listen to what me, Rachel and... and your father tell you..."

"Father... father is there?" William asked in both anticipation and foreboding.

"Yeah, your father is overseeing the whole thing William. Now like I said we all will guide you through this, just follow what we say and you will get through this ok?"

"I... I'll try." he answered nervously.

**Command Center  
><strong>**7:05PM EST**

Megan stared at the screen with reluctance at what she now had to do, it was time to send him up there... to send this poor kid with zero training against an enemy who just single handedly brought the greatest military power this planet had to offer to it's knees. But the only other choice there was to just hit it with enough nukes to just disintegrate it...

Life is just to good at giving you two devils out of a situation.

Capt Megan Kelling took a deep breath and put all of that out of her, clearing her head, it was now time to be professional. She looked dead on at the image of the Eva on the main screen and ordered, "Begin launch procedure!" and at her command thousands of the lock bolts that held down the Eva released, the side walls of the cage that enclosed the Eva's arms opened and moved forward leaving the Eva standing on a platform mounted on a rail way with the only restraint left being one to hold it in place while the platform moved.

Megan then leaned back in looking into the camera mounted to the control panel and open up her comlink to William again, "Ok William, now we're gonna to equip you an assault cannon..."

"A what? I... I don't know how to use a gun... or anything like that!" He shot back over the line in protest.

"Don't worry, just follow our lead and shoot when we tell you to shoot. You can do this, I believe in you."

**Entry Plug  
><strong>**7:06PM EST**

I believe in you.

He had never heard anyone say that to him before... not even from father...

"Al.. alright Megan... Yeah... I can do this."

A large crane arm then carried over to him a large sleek looking weapon that looked like a giant machine gun and he grabbed onto it's grip holding tight, feeling it's weight in his hands.

"Might I add that you look like quite the bad ass with that rifle in your hands." Megan added causing Williams face to flush red. She then continued, "Ok William, now if you look to your left and right you'll that a pylon like structure on each of your shoulders, they'll be the black things you see on them."

William looked left and right noticing them, they covered his shoulders and most of his upper arm and had a rectangular"fin" like strutter on top of them. He did remember seeing them when he first looked at the Eva but at the time he just thought they were part of what was locking the giant in place.

"Ok... I see them"

"Good." Megan replied nodding, "Those pylons hold support equipment. Right now they hold secondary weapons. In the right side one is a special Eva sized knife called a progressive knife, prog knife for short. It uses progressive waves to cause the edge to vibrate at a super high frequency which makes the weapon extremely sharp. In your left side pylon is basically what amounts to an Eva sized version of pistol, it's got shorter range then the rifle but it's easier to use if you find yourself to close to the Angel. Now to activate them you'll just need to focus on opening them, just tell yourself "right pylon open" and it'll do so. Now while you probably won't need them try to keep this in mind."

She waited for him to nod and then told him, "I'm gonna switch over to Rachel now, she's got something very important to tell you." Megan's face then was replaced by the doctor's, needless to say he found seeing HER again less then reassuring.

"Need to make this quick so listen up since I know you didn't listen to me when I first explained all this. You know how that Angel took no damage from most of the weapons we hit it with, well that's because it had an A.T Field..."

"An AT what?" He asked in confusion.

"An A.T. Field." She repeated, "It's a type of force field, kinda like what you'd see on _Star Trek _only far more powerful. So long as the Angel has it up it's almost invincible but we got something that can beat it, the Eva can generate a A.T. Field as well and when two A.T. Fields meet they start to cancel each other out which weakens them and with it's A.T. Field weakened that Angel can be hurt but be careful, the weakening effect is a two way street; you're field will be weakened as well."

"Ok... Ummm how... how do I use it?" He asked, trying to take all of this in.

"When we tell you to unfold your field just start concentrating, it'll come naturally to you. You got all that?"

"Yeah, I got it." He replied wishing he had more time to go over this all, this was all just too much information to try and take in at one time when you had only a few minutes to absorb all it.

"Good, it's time to move you out."

**Command Center  
><strong>**7:08PM EST**

Megan waited for the all clear singling that no one was in the path of the Eva's transportation line before moving on to her next command.

"Move Eva Unit 01 catapult number zero seven one, let's give him some distance between him and the Angel." And the Eva began to roll backwards as the platform it was on followed the rails into the main catapult room, in it several launch tubes lined the walls providing the Eva with paths to the surface.

Eva Unit 01 moved into it's launch tube, a quick check was made to make sure the route was clear and in working order; it came back green.

Evangelion Unit 01 was ready for launch.

"Alright William, this is it. Are you ready?" Megan asked the young pilot.

"Ye.. yeah." He lied.

She then looked up at the commander and despite her better judgment asked, "Sir, can we really do this?"

The commander looked back down at her, his hand's folded over his mouth betraying no emotion as he replied, "We have little choice but to."

His answer gave her no solace but she wasn't really expecting it to. She took a long hard look at the massive Eva as it stood in it's launch bay seeing past it and to the small child it held within.

It was time.

"Launch Eva!"

**Catapult Room 71  
><strong>**7:06PM EST**

William winced as he found his body, both of them, instantly accelerated to 3 gees rocketing up the launch tube at impossible speeds as he was shot up to the surface.

He then felt himself decelerated almost as fast and with a heavy jerk he came to a rest standing in the middle of a large road in the middle of a city with warning lights going off around the spot the platform was now resting. It took a few seconds for him to calm himself, it would have been almost fun if he knew to expect it!

He took a look around as various buildings and other objects were highlighted just like in the cage. The city looked so empty, so desolate. The only thing breaking the stillness besides the smoke rising up from several fires started around it was the flashes of lighting and that aura that shun almost beautifully in the night sky.

The Angel however was no where to be seen.

Megan then popped back on screen asking him, "So... how was it?"

"Ummm... it... it was pretty intense." He told her with great understatement. He then asked her back, "Ummm so... where... where is it? Where is the Angel?"

"It's going to be heading your way, you should see it in a few more seconds. Figured I'd set up so you could get use to your new body first." She informed him and he replied with an "Oh."

She then said to him, "We're gonna set you lose now, you're gonna be standing for the first time under your own power like this so try not lose your balance."

He nodded in response as he braced himself.

He heard her order, "Release finally safety locks!" and felt the final clamps holding him down let go and for the first time he felt how truly massive he now was.

Rachel then came back over the line. "Ok William, very good. Now try walking, just do it like you wanted to move your own body; just take into account your now over a hundred feet tall."

Walk... I can do this... it shouldn't be that hard, he thought about walking and slowly lifted his leg, the Eva's followed and then he put it down.

The command room came alive in support, he was really doing this!

He then moved his next leg up just as he saw the Angel come from behind a group of buildings about a mile away... It was huge, at lest TWICE as big as his machine! He locked onto the monster's hollow eyes and the monster looked on back, tilting it's head almost as if it was intrigued by this new thing it saw and William lost it, the reality of this had finally and truly hit him and he brought his leg down wrong and he and the Eva toppled over falling face first into the ground like a bomb blast and William grabbed his face in pain, it had felt like HIS face had hit the ground.

The Angel watched on as the Eva fell. It then look as if it noticed something and then reared back letting out a displeased sounding wail as it began to charge towards the fallen Eva picking up speed as the aura above intensified.

William looked on at the charging titan and his mind went blank with fear, over the com line Megan and Rachel yelled for him to calm down and get up but he was beyond that now, pure instinct now drove his actions.

With a terrified yell William propped himself back up, raised his weapon and pulled the trigger feeling the cannon jar back under the force of it's recoil as burst of rounds exploded from it's barrel! Three of the rounds manged to make their way over to the Angel flashing into balls of smoke against it's A.T. Field., the rest missed entirely blasting gaping wholes from the sides of the surrounding buildings. He then dropped the weapon and turned to run but it was too late, the Angel was upon him, towering over the Eva as if it were a child.

With one hand it grabbed the Eva's head and forced it back around while lifting the Eva's great weight as if it was a doll and William flailed his arms around in desperation, the Angel grabbed his left one. A surge of muscle shot down it's arm and it snapped the Eva's like a twig raining shards of metal down to the ground along with something else... a red fluid that looked almost like blood.

William exploded with pain, he could feel it, he could the Eva's arm break as if it was his own!

Over the com Rachel yelled, "Relax! That's not really your arm!"

Little did that do to calm him, the pain told him otherwise.

"Your field William! Try unfolding your A.T. Field! Concentrate! You need to do this now!" She continued to yell in desperation but William was locked in panic... this was far too much for him...

A sharp pain to his right eye then snapped him back to reality and he looked out at the Angel standing in front of him. He saw a glow formed around the Angel's elbow spike and it shot out from it's palm slamming into the visor covering the Eva's right "eye".

William clenched in pain, frozen with the shock of it as the spike shot out again and again and again.

Finally the visor's armor gave way and the spike impaled it's way through the Eva's head erupting out the back of it in a shower of red fluid.

All singles were cut off from the Eva and William's vitals dropped to zero.

**Some other place, some other time**

"Oh. Come in William, it's alright, I don't mind an audience."

"Yes... yes sir." William meekly replied to his guardian, staring in interest at the strange instrument he was playing. Despite now living with this man for over a year now he still found him to be somewhat intimidating.

"Do you know what this is?"

The boy shook his head looking at the instrument he was playing, he had never seen one before. It looked like a giant guitar to him.

"It's a cello... You know your father used to be quite the violin player, he wasn't bad with the guitar either. Sadly he never went anywhere with it."

Daddy...

"Would you like to learn to play the cello, I could teach you."

William thought about it and nodded.

"That's good... Hmmmmmm I... I think I still have my first one from when I was a lad stashed up in the attic. I'll retrieve it for you tomorrow and I can begin giving you lessons."

William nodded again with a faint smile. Maybe if I learned to play it I would be special and if I was special maybe my daddy would love me again and then he would take me home.

I just want my daddy to love me again.


	8. Chapter Seven: Beginnings

**NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR  
>Vol: 1 Dark Messenger<strong>

**Chapter Seven  
><strong>**Beginnings **

**Tuesday August 25th, 2015**

**Angel blast site near the Potomac river west bank, Washington D.C.  
><strong>**5:52AM EST**

Dozens of NERV workers clad in bulky red space suit like bio-hazard/radiation gear patrolled around blast area of destroyed and heavily damaged buildings that stretched for 3 blocks in each direction around the 20m wide blast crater left by the Angel when it was destroyed armed with Geiger counters and other sensors along with high pressure hoses making sure none the few remnants that the monster left behind were hazardous as well as collecting any samples that could unlock more clues about the nature of this strange enemy.

At the same time suited construction workers examined the buildings that still stood to see if any were worth salvaging, a testament to the higher degree of construction standers buildings in this city had to adhere to, while massive earth shaking construction vehicles clear debris and demolish condemned structures.

During all this from a pile of rubble near the crater a large crane pulls part of a badly dented and charred armored mask like helmet with a single long horn like protrusion coming off from it's forehead.

**Commanders conference room, NERV HQ  
><strong>**Meeting with the Human Instrumentality Council: In session  
><strong>**6:02AM EST**

Commander Gregory Ikari sat at the end of the conference table in a room almost totally enclosed in darkness with the only a row of dim red light lining the wall near the floor giving shape to it along with color coded lighting overhead vaguely highlighting each of the members of the council.

Blue for the Russian representative to his immediate right.

Yellow for the French representative to his left.

Green for the American representative on the far right hand corner.

Red for the English representative on the left hand one.

And white for the German representative who sat at the head of the table, his dark eyes locked on to Ikari betraying no emotions. Of all the powerfully men gathered here he was the only one here Ikari gave any heed to.

"So now after 15 years the Angels have finally begun to awaken." Announced the Russian in an casual manner as if this fact was only cause for minor disbane.

"Yesss, but this was far sooner then was predicted. This could... Complicate things." Hissed the Frenchmen in much the same manner.

"Well such is the way with disasters, they come and go with out warning. But the commander here knows that all quite well." Said the Englishmen, continuing the line of though, his eyes focused on Ikari looking to see if he had drawn blood.

"This maybe so but it is simply a fact we must deal with and adapt to." Replied Ikari through his steepled hands, "And in any case we have found ourselves fortuitous that it was the fourth angel that awoken first."

"Indeed, most fortuitous. Had it been the third one with our current unready position things could... of gotten interesting." Agreed the American who added, "But all in all it would seem out investment here has not been a total waste."

"I would not be so sure to agree to that yet." Countered the Russian, "In the long run this may still cost us more then it gains."

"Yes, the projected costs to repair Unit 00 along with those projected for Unit 01 and the damage done to the city in addition to their normal operating costs is... simply staggering." Agreed the Englishmen putting emphasis on his last two words.

"And then there's the fact you gave that toy to your son." Continued the Russian, "Time, money and manpower. How much more will be consumed by you and your family before begin sated Ikari?"

"And on top of that what about the fact that you are behind schedule on the Human Instrumentality Project. Angels or not this should be you top priority." The Englishmen berated.

"Agreed." Said the German speaking for the first time, "Ikari this project above all others is our best hope and I can not tolerate any further delays. I may have to reconsider the budget."

The German took a look across the table at his fellow councilmen and the NERV commander and then ordered, "We are done here for the today, meeting adjourn."

And with that the lights over the heads of the councilmen went out and they each vanished for view; their presence there the whole time being nothing but a holographic projection with only the German remaining.

He looked dead across the table at Ikari.

"You do know there is now no turning back from the course we have chosen."

"I know that all too well Kiel." Ikari answered back and the German nodded in reply and then disappeared.

Ikari then added, "This is the fate we have cast on ourselves."

"We can only prey that those fools realize that as well." Added the vice-commander as he stepped out from the shadows behind Ikari, "Otherwise the Angels will be the lest of our problems."

**Room 101 First Cranial Nerve Advanced Trauma Center, main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ  
><strong>**6:30AM EST**

Wa-!

-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-

-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-

-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-

-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-

William Ikari shot up into a sitting position in a bed, his back drenched in sweat as he tried to clear the images from his mind that had violently awaken him, images of war, of a pillar of fire, of him savagely attacking a monster, yelling like a beast... that man in the crashed fighter and all the death that stood in his wake.

And at end of it all was... was his mother... not her face or image... just the presence of her.

He looked down at his left arm while rubbing his right eye with his other hand. They weren't in pain, there just was something odd about how they felt; they just felt wrong.

He then looked around the room he was in confusion. It seemed to be a hospital room but he had no idea of how he got here. He looked out the row of windows to his right giving him a view of a large forest bathed in the gray haze of early morning sun and then laid back down staring up at the ceiling trying to make sense of all this.

"What the hell happened to me?"

**Angel decontamination site operations deployment tent  
><strong>**6:42AM EST**

Capt. Megan Kelling grabbed a pop or a soda as they called it around these parts from the cooler and plopped down on her seat next to her friend and co worker Dr. Rachel Ammadon, who was swigging back a bottle of almost iced water, giving her battered armpits a rest from the constant abuse her crutches gave them while trying to hog as much of the fan that stood on the table in front of her somewhat cooler air as she could on this particularly brutal August day.

It was hot almost all year round now but August was still the worst.

They were both in charge of overseeing the clean up of the blast site or more precisely they _were_ in charge of overseeing the clean up. Their shift as the operations leaders had just ended, Megan's was also almost over for the day as well-just a few more reports to file and she could go home, and they were taking a quick break before the headed back to HQ.

Megan took one last look at the live feed of workers patrolling a blown out apartment complex on her laptop before closing it while thinking, "If this is what victory looks like..." and then flipped on the small portable TV someone brought along hoping to catch a few minutes of something amusing only to find every channel had the same "Special news event" of some nameless member of the presidents press core relaying to the American people that nothing special has happened the other day, that it was the caused by a clash between the military and well armed insurgents and not to believe "outlandish conspiracy theories" such as believing what you saw or using common sense and to instead believe the contradictory cover story the government was feeding them.

"Soooo public scenario B-84, can't believe they're going with this bullshit." Megan commented as she switched off the TV back off.

"Yeah." Rachel replied while tossing her empty water bottle into a can mark recyclables, "Public relations is pretty happy, they finally have something to do."

"Well I'm glad someone is finding something to be happy about in this." Megan remarked back sarcastically, "But you know, they could try telling people the truth. Crazy I know."

"The truth?" Rachel repeated in mock bewilderment acting like it was the dirties word she ever head, "You are crazy, the government has an reputation to up hold after all!"

Rachel grabbed another bottle of water then asked, " Wanna head back?"

"Yeah, let's go."

The two of them made their way over to motor pool where their truck was parked passing by what seemed to be a normal eight story apartment complex with inspectors checking over it when with the sound of heavy hydraulics pushing each floor above the first three slide forward slightly and opened up revealing rows of metal boxes. Hatches at the top of each box opened and cranes started removing large missiles from each box lowering it to the ground where NERV personal began to inspected them.

This city was more then it seemed.

Looking up at the missile battery disguised as an apartment complex as she garbed the handle on the passenger side door Megan remarked, "You know with Eva and city up once we get it up an running we might just be able to do this after all."

"You're such an optimist" Rachel shot back with a laugh, shaking her head as she climb into the truck

**Just outside room 101  
><strong>**6:45AM EST**

William Ikari gazed out of the windows that lined the hallway just outside of his room out past the forest the surrounded the area and the few noticeable buildings that dotted the landscape and to the strange doomed wall that laid at the end, something long and metallic seemed to be going up a spiraling path along it.

"So I am really in a Geofront... but if I'm underground... how is there sunlight?"

As he looked around for the source for the sunlight he noticed something to the left and he leaned in closer against the window to get a better view of what it was seeing two of the large armored buildings like the kind he remembered seeing when he first entered the Geofront with Ms. Kelling crashed into the ground, one was impaled right into the ground like a giant stake with it's bottom few floor crushed into each to the point where they had merged, the other one was laying on it's back; the lower half of it was bent upward in an odd way. Around both buildings large construction vehicles where trying to dismantle them.

And then from his left side he heard a stretcher being pushed down the hallway towards him and he turned to look and saw that it was that poor girl Rei lying on it being pushed by a nurse.

She looked right into his eyes and William let out a barely audibly, "S.. sorry." as she passed him by disappearing as she went around a corner.

How could he ever forgive himself? How could he ever forgive himself for putting her through that?

**On 14th street heading North bound  
><strong>**7:01AM EST**

"So your cars a total wreak?" Rachel asked her friend as she drove them back to HQ getting a depressed, "Yeah." from her friend in reply who was now stripped down to a tank top and practically molesting the AC vent in front of her.

"That sucks." Rachel sympathized.

"Yeah, at lest they're letting my borrow a car until I can deal with my insurance company. Assholes are giving me the run around calming that no where does it say their coverage deals with military actions. Can you believe that crap!" Megan vented.

"Yeah, they got loopholes for ever..." Rachel began to say when her cell phone went off. She took it from her pocket while asking Megan to excuse for a minute while she took it the call.

"Yeah... oh, that's good... Yeah keep me updated."

Rachel hung up the phone told Megan the news, "Well looks like our little pilot is up."

"How is he? Is he alright?" She asked Rachel in a worried tone, news he was up had made Megan ecstatic, but she still had her worries.

"No, nothing's physically wrong though... his memories of last night seem to be a little muddled."

"Think it could be brain damage?" Megan half yelled out, her worry was now bordering on panic at the thought.

"Naaaaw." Rachel replied, "He just went through a lot, he'll be fine."

She then glanced over her friend again, "Want me to drop you off by the hospital?"

"Yeah."

**Main lobby First Cranial Nerve  
><strong>**7:42AM EST**

William sat waiting in a chair in the hospitals waiting room to be picked up while staring at his left arm. While the doctors said he was fine his arm still felt off.

From behind him he heard a familiar voice ask, William, how.. how are you feeling?"

Despite the calming effect of hearing her voice she wasn't who he really wanted to be picking him up and all he could answer with was a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ok... let's... let's get going. You got some paper work you need to go over." Megan explained.

"Ok." William replied as he got up.

They made their way over to the elevators crossing the hospitals hexagon patterned floor and Megan hit the down button. A few seconds latter the third elevator to their left opened with a ding and they went to enter it when they saw it had an occupant. It was Williams father.

William's eyes lit up and he waited for his father to tell him he came to pick him up but only found him silently looking at him as if he was a complete stranger.

William lowered his head in dismay looking at the two hexagons that stood at his feet between him and the elevator that might as of been a barrier blocking them off from each other. The elevator's door closed and his father was gone.

Megan look on at the boy with sadness in her eyes, what kind of man could do that to his own son? How could the commander be so cold?

**NERV New Recruit Orientation Center, NERV HQ  
><strong>**11:02AM EST**

For the next three hours William sat through hundred pages of paper work, meet three recruitment officers and even had to sit through new personal orientational video that made the manual he read through look absolutely riveting in comparison. Through all of this Megan stayed by his side, her presence seemed to have made this ordeal a bit more manageable.

William had decided to stay as an Eva pilot, Megan was surprised.

"You're quarters are going to be in the barracks number three two and a half blocks south of the main building, I'll have a map with directions for you before you leave." The recruitment office tells NERV's newest member after which he ask, "Any questions."

"No, none that I can think off." Williams replied.

Something just felt wrong to Megan about this, it was bad enough that his father wasn't going to have his own son live with him but to make him live all on his own?"

"William.. are you ok with this? With being alone?"

He looks back to her with a false smile on his face and replies, "It's alright Megan, I'm use to it. I'm alone anyways. Anywhere will be fine."

Hearing him say that was her final straw, she had to do something.

**Head Chairpersons Office Project E Main Science Dpt., main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ  
><strong>**1:016PM EST**

Dr. Rachel Ammadon snuffed out the butt of her cigarette into her overflowing white ashtray adorn with a cute drawing of two cats, one black the other white, with a heart between them and promptly lit another.

Technically NERV was a smoke free environment but she was one of the few people here in the special situation of NERV needing her a whole lot more then she need NERV, with her credentials she could walk out the door today and have a job at any university, computer company or A.I research center in the world she wanted the next day which needless to say earned her a few perks.

Sadly it also earned her a never ending workload with just enough free time to at lest sleep at her apartment or it had, with the aftermath of the Angel's attack she wouldn't be sleeping at home anytime soon. While it helped that she was a workaholic who found it easier to relate the work place then "real life" she was really starting to feel the strain.

"Maybe I'll give up Megan a call later and we can go out tomorrow night, I really need to get out of here."

She leaned back, puffed a few drags and took a sip from her equally cat themed coffee cup, waited for the combination of nicotine and caffeine to kick in and then went to get started back on finishing her report on the rather lack luster findings they got from the few tissue sample the Angel left behind, 99.997% of it was evaporated in the explosion, when her cell phone rang.

"Hey Megan, could you make it quick. I got to get this report done with in the next hour... what was that?"

What was this idiot thinking?

**NERV Tactical Operations, Capt. Kelling's Office, NERV HQ B-12 Central Dogma  
><strong>**1:20PM EST**

"You heard me. He's going to be staying with me, it's already been approved!" Megan replied laying back in her chair, feet up on her desk while William sat on a stool a few feet behind her.

"Are you sure you can handle it? He is a teenage boy." Rachel asked knowing full well that she was in position to try to take on the responsibility of handling a kid, let alone a hormonal teenager!

"What? I'll be fine." She replied completely sidestepping the question, "Don't worry, I promise not to make any passes at him?"

"What? What would even think of such a thing?" Rachel yelled in surprise over her friends choice of words loud enough that William heard it from where he was sitting prompting Megan to pull the phone away from her ear lest suffer permanent hearing loss while muttering, "Jezz, sometimes you got not sense of humor at all."

**Heading East on Benning road  
><strong>**6:43PM EST**

"You know we're gonna have to go all out tonight right?" Megan said to William with a warm smile as she drove her loner down the street as the sun started to set in the sky.

"Why is that?" William asked puzzled trying his best not show just how out of place he felt right now. It wasn't that he was afraid of Ms. Kelling, no it was far from that, it was just... something he couldn't place made him uneasy.

"Well I got to have a welcoming party for new roommate of course." She answered with a wink.

She's just had gotten off of a long day of work, William had made a full recovery and she now had a new roommate. Sounded like a good reason to party to her. Well that and the city as well as the world still being here, there was that.

After driving for a few minutes in silence Megan pulled into the 7-11 near her apartment and took William in to grab some snacks and pop he liked while she grabbed two cases of Miller Light and then made it over to the check out counter.

While everything was being rung up William heard two women talk behind him while they waited in line. It wasn't like he was trying to listen in on their business but the subject of their discussion made it hard for him not to.

"So you're really leaving town tomorrow?" The taller and older looking of the two asked the smaller younger looking one.

"Well after what happened last night Phillip told me that I should just take the kids and move in with Beth until things blow over." Replied the shorter, younger looking one.

"My God Liz, it was horrible... Sara's place was totally destroyed, nothing but a hole in the ground, and did you hear about the shelter that collapsed?" Continued the older one.

"No... my goodness. But it figures, probably cut corners to pocket a little extra money. But really you should go to, just get the hell out of this place. I don't care what NERV has, if it can't stop this from happening to the city then what good are they?" Said the shorter one as William heard all he could take, lowering his head down once more in despair.

Why did it have to me? Why did father have to chose me for this... I can't even save these people...

Megan look over at William with concern in her eyes, she too heard the conversation behind them and knew full well how deep those words were cutting at him. He was going to need something a little extra special to pick him up and she had just the thing in mind.

They made it back to the car and Megan started it up and took off heading back in the direction they came. She then looked over at William telling him, "We're going to be taking a little detour before we head home alright?"

"Where.. where we going?"

"Somewhere really cool." Megan vaguely hinted with a wink. He's going to like this.

After twenty minutes of driving Megan made her way to the outskirts of the city and over to a raised area of land set up as a tourist site that offered a beautiful view of the city and it' officials capitalized on the fact lining the railing with rows of coin operated binoculars.

She parked and took William up to the edge and waited while William looked across at the city dabbed in shades of crimson and gold highlighted by the setting sun. While the view combined with the time of day was breathtaking the city still look somehow bleak to him. And there just was how different it looked now from pictures he had seen of it before the bombing. The Pentagon was gone completely, apparently the nuke was set off from inside a van no more then 80ft away leaving only a crater that was turned into a small lake to mark where it once stood. Then there was the fact that most of the city was made up of "historically significant architecture" which in turn meant that most of the city burned like dry kindling, in fact from what William was told by his guardian the wood frame of the Washington monument caused it burn like a giant candle for days after the blast. Sturdier buildings like the Library of Congress and the Capital Building still were mostly wood on the inside and housed liberal amounts of paper leaving them beyond repair while the White House was only partly leveled; it was later physically moved from it's location, decontaminated and was now undergoing extensive renovation and reconstruction. The only familiar landmarks he could make out were the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the National Archives building (though it helped that the former building was a more modern one designed to survive nuclear blast).

The rest of the city was new and expanded though most of it was just rows of the same small clusters of buildings you would find in most medium sized cites. The only new things that jump out at him where the large grid of metal plates several blocks in size that lined the middle of the city like a giant cross and the three large reflective towers near the North-West corner of the Potomac which he figured was what was bringing light down to the Geofront which were the first things he noticed when he got here.

And then there was the damage. Several large craters dotted the city scape, some so deep that they just looked like black pits, along with the leveled buildings that surround them. The worst of them was just off the South-West corner of the Potomac river were the largest of the craters laid, the surrounding area for blocks around it looked like someone ran over it with a giant black paintbrush.

"Why? Why did she bring me here? I know already how much I messed things up..."

Megan pulled her cell phone from her pocket and looked at the time: 6:59. It was time.

Air raid sirens started up filling the air with their harsh wail and William's widen.

Dotted lines of reds lights appeared on each of the metal metal plates as sever large hatches opened and out from them equally large armored buildings sprang forth and William's eyes went wide once more, this time from surprise and wonderment.

"This... this is amazing! It's almost like they're growing!"

Megan looked on Wlliam's change of mode and smiled.

"William, this is your city now. The city you saved. No matter what anyone says you must remember that you're a hero."

**Lovely Suites Condominiums 17  
><strong>**7:25PM EST**

Megan lead William off of the elevator and down to her apartment at the end of the hallway just before it bended off to the left. The hall was filled with more boxes then usual, people must be moving out but then again who would want to live in a warzone?

As they made it to the door Megan pulled a key card from her pocket while informing William, "Your guardian sent us a bunch of your stuff a few years back, we got at over at HQ. They should have it shipped up here sometime tomorrow."

"Oh... he did? Alright." William replied while Megan slide the card across the magnetic reader and the door slide open and stepped in.

William stepped up to the doorway's edge and stopped, the line that divided the hall from the apartment was now a threshold. Once he crossed it he knew that was it, this was to be his life now and no longer just something that he just acknowledged at the back of his mind but he wasn't sure if he was ready for this yet.

"What wrong William?" Megan asked seeing his reluctance and with a smile and out reached arm she told him, "This is your house too, now come in."

He nodded and took her hand and finally steeped inside. "I... I'm home."

"Welcome home William."

William followed his new roommate down the apartment's entry way and into it's living room where he found it to be an explosions of half empty boxes, car magazines, empty pizza cartons and a small mountain of empty bottles of booze and beer cans! He had never seen any place so... so... messy! How could anyone live like this? Let alone a woman?

"Don't mind the mess, I just moved in two days ago and haven't really been home since the homewarming party." Megan explained doing little to curve William's astonishment at the condition of this place.

She then started to give him a quick tour of her place, "Alright, this is the frontroom, TV's over there in the corner; I got a PS4 and a Nintendo Wonder System, you're free to play them." She then had him follow her to the other end of the room, "This end's the dinning room, we eat there." she aid pointing at the cheep dinning room table sitting in the middle of the room with four chairs surrounding it, then she pointed to the room to her left, "That's the kitchen, we make food there. There's also a laundry room in there, we wash our dirty drawers there. Balcony's behind me, we chill there. Room to my right is my room, I sleep there... sometimes. If the door's close knock before entering unless you want to see me naked... ummmm forget that part, moving on. Door to to the left of the kitchen is the bathroom, we poop and bath there... ewww didn't sound as nasty when I thought of saying it." She lead him back towards the living room and open a door to a small room that housed a gym mat, some small weights thrown about, a exercise machine and a radio sitting on small cabinet next to the mat just off from being on the opposite side of the place from the bathroom, "This was suppose to be a office room but I made it my exercise room." And finally she took him to the last room in the place, " And this is the guest room though from now on it's going to be your room."

William took a look into his new room and was surprised to see it was actually clean, just in need of a little dusting. It was a decent sized room, about the same sized as the one he lived in back in Georgetown with a queen sized bed in the left hand corner and a dresser already there. All and all it wasn't bad.

She was pleased to see he seemed to like the room.

"Now remember William, that's your room. Feel free to do whatever you want with it... well so long as you don't knock any holes in it or something."

After William was done checking out his room to be and had steeped back out into the living room Megan took a look around the place and said, "Alright,William mind putting the food away? I'm gonna go change out of my work close and after that let's get this place straitened up a little before we got to partying, nothing to major, if you don't mind."

"Oh no, I don't mind." William replied as he grabbed the bags and beer and took them into the kitchen while Megan stepped into her room, sat on her bed and took off that annoying knee brace, rubbed her knee down with lotion and then wrapped with some elastic bandages and gauze before changing into shorts and a tank top.

William finished putting away to snacks as best he could, he didn't know how she liked to keep her things but on the other hand it didn't seem like she would of cared anyways. He stepped back out into the living room where he saw Megan leaning on her crutches looking around the place and her face lit up like she just remembered something, "Oh yeah, before we start we got to split up the chores around here." and before he could even respond she threw out her hand yelling, "Rock, paper, scissors!"

William had no time to react and just left his hand out open, unfortunately for him she had picked scissors.

"Ha! Scissors cut paper!" She yelled in victory maybe a little to exuberantly, "Looks like you handle cleaning tomorrow, alright let's try for Thursday! Come on kid, better set up!"

Fifteen minutes later...

"Well that was a really fair way to split of the work load." Megan exclaimed with a shit eating grin as she marked on which day each of them had the daily chores on the calendar with an initial of their first name. William felt other wise as he look over the calendar for the next four weeks and the insubordinatelly high numbers of times his initial came up over his roommate, he almost said something about it but... well it wasn't THAT big of a deal...

They then got to cleaning up the place and after about an half and hour of no real head way Megan decided to call it and get something to eat, she told William to go relax and she disappeared into the kitchen for about fifteen more minutes then came back out with dinner, two Tyson's microwavable chicken dinners as well as a case of beer.

"Alright, soups on!" She yelled as she placed the dinners down on the table. William took a seat while Megan grabbed a beer, leaned her crutches against the was and sat down in the chair opposite of him, chugged it down like a champion, grabbed another one, then announced, "Let's eat!" with a light slur to her voice, this was her eight beer for the night so far, and dug in.

As she finished her second beer (for the dinner that is) she noticed that William was really eating, just sorta picking at he meal.

"Hmmmm? William? Don't you want to eat? I mean yeah it's not a fresh cooked meal but it's still pretty good."

"Ah, it's just that... that I'm not used to this sort of thing." William replied embarrassed that he brought this kind of attention to himself.

"Too good to eat his food is he!" Megan thought mistaking what William meant. She slammed the empty can down and leaned forward yelling, "Oh no! I'm not gonna have some finicky kid waste food at my table!"

"No... it's... it's not that it's just ahhhhhh..." William muttered out trying to explain himself when he noticed with her leaned over and her tank top hanging down that she wasn't wearing a bra... he didn't mean to stare but... there they were, two nice and pump B-cups and he couldn't look away.

"Hmmm, well isn't this nice." Megan said sweetly.

William face turned red (well redder) thinking she had caught him looking.

"Huuuh, what?" he stummered out both trying to play dumb as well do to the fact he simply didn't know how to respond.

"Having someone with you while you eat of course." Megan explained with a smile.

"Oh, yeah.. yeah." William let out meekly. He started to calm a bit now that he realized she didn't seem to have noticed.

Megan then leaned back down into her chair and grabbed another beer.

"Don't for get, that this place is your home too so feel free to take advantage of anything you want. Ok?"

"Y.. yeah..." William replied weakly.

Megan folded her arms while her expression turned slightly annoyed.

"Yes, yes, yes. What's with you? Always acting so proper? You're a boy! Started acting like one!" Megan then leaned in over the table aggressively with he arm reached out; William froze as she leapted forward her action triggering a brief flashback of the night before, of some great hand grabbing his own. As he snapped too he found himself in a light head lock as Megan rained nuggies upon his noggin while yelling, "Come on, get more aggressive! Start acting like a man!"

She then relented leaning back, "Oh well. If you don't feel like eating right now, why don't you go and take a bath? Go relax you're self, you've had a pretty rough past two days and besides...eheheehheeh, you're hairs a mess."

William touched the top of his now frizzed up hair with minor annoyance and agreed with another, "yeah."

It wasn't that he really felt like a bath, it was just being in the spot light like this... was off putting.

William excused himself and headed over to the bathroom while Megan traced him with her eyes. After he disappeared behind the door she finished of her current beer and thought to herself, "I guess... I'm trying to much to relate with him..." She sat her beer can down next to the others, "Maybe I'm the one who needs to grow up."

William laid soaking in the bathtub, letting the steaming water relax his body.

"Megan Kelling... She seems to be a nice person..." His mind remembers back to her smiling face picking him up from the hospital, "And then there's that girl, Rei..." his mind then flashed back to seeing her being being brought into the Eva's cage on that stretcher and the shame that made him feel while at the same time remembering back to that girl he saw who looked so much like her..., "... who is she?"

And then his mind settled on the image of his father, his cold stare as he turned his back on him.

"Father... Rei... Why is this all happening?"

**2nd Experiment Site, Terminal Dogma B-32  
><strong>**9:28PM EST**

"How was Rei?" Rachel asks as she steped into the heavily damage control room crunching glass as she ducked around a tangle of wiring that hanged from an exposed spot where the armored ceiling tile had fallen away.

Towards the front of the room highlight only be the red emergency lights that hung from the ceiling Commander Ikrai stood looking out the smashed operational windows and into experimental operations cage at the yellow armor clad one eyed giant that stood within half hunched over with it's right arm smashed fully through the wall sealant poured around it to keep the coolant that surrounded the room keeping it a controlled environment from leaking in, it's other other arm clenched it's head almost as if it was cradling it from some great pain while it's lower half was cemented in place with a super resilient quick dry synthetic resin called durabakelite.

The commander stood silent not answering Rachel's question.

Rachel asked again, "You went and saw her this morning didn't you?" and he finally responded without looking back at her, "She will be able to work again in twenty days. By then repairs and testing should be done on Unit 00"

"It's just so hard putting this all on the shoulders of children." Rachel said somewhat shocked at the coldness of his answer as she walked closer to him until she stood behind him.

"You know full well these children are the only ones who can do this, so long as they survive it is what I will have them do." The commander replied not once moving his gaze from the giant before him.

He was right, she knew this all to well but... knowing something and dealing with the realities of it are two very different beasts. The human mind has an amazing capacity to fool it's self in that regard and she found herself projecting her own anger at herself for playing this part in all this as she yelled, "And with no regard for what they may want?"

**Megan's apartment  
><strong>**9:49PM EST **

"Yeah, after all this even though he agreed to stay I don't know if he'll be up to piloting again." Megan explained over her cordless while relaxing in the tube after finishing up with William's welcoming party.

"Maintaining him is your joooob." Rachel chided her from the other end with a mock condescending tone.

"You know Rachel... to tell the truth I am kinda scared, I don't think I know how to deal with him."

"Bitching already? It was your great idea to take him in, "Oh! I'll be fine!" Rachel reminded her getting an overbearingly loud, "Oh shut up!" followed by the click of Megan's phone hanging up.

Megan look down at her self feeling shamefull, Rachel was right... as much as she hated to admit it.

"I'm no different from her am I? In the end I'm still thinking of him as a tool."

She looked back her phone sitting on the side of the tub and then back up at the ceiling.

"Even though we destroyed that Angel... why.. why don't I feel happy?"

William laid in his bed listening to his MP4 player in silence, his "welcoming party" had ended. It... it was fun he had to admit but he didn't think he could ever get use to being the center of attention like that.

He changed the track back to 16 and rolled onto his back looking up at the ceiling.

"Just like that hospital, this is still an unfamiliar place for me... though really..." He sighed to himself, ".. there's nowhere that's familiar to me here."

He thought back to Megan welcoming him in with her outstretch hand.

"Why am I here?"

"What am I doing?"

"I should of just run away..."

"Father... why did you do this to me?"

William once again turned the tack back to 16 as he roll over onto his side and curls up.

Megan finished up her bath and stood up bearing the pain from her knee, thankfully the beer was helping with that, and steeped out of the tub using the wall for support, grabbed a towel, sat down on the toilet and started drying her self. She then re-wrapped her bandaged around her knee then wrapped the towel around herself as a robe, grabbed her crutches and made her way over to her room stopping when she reached the edge of William's open door. She looked in seeing the poor boy laying there.

"Will.. William, mind if I come in?" She asks getting no reply in return.

She leans in more but doesn't fully enter and says, "I.. I forgot to tell you. You did a great and noble thing William... You should be proud of yourself... "

She leaned back out to "her" side of the door way still receiving no reply.

"Well good night William... Hang in there."

With that Megan closed the door to his room and left. William closed his eyes and curled up further.

He was soon asleep and then the nightmares came again.

**NERV Command Center twenty seven hours ago.**

On the main screen was a video feed transmitted from an aerial drone of the battle showing the Angel as it ram it's arm spike through the Eva's head as a gush of red fluid exploded out of the back of it and then tossed the now limp Eva into a building at the end of the block as every one in the command room looked on eyes wide in horror, all except the commander who merely looked content. The Angel then turned and walked away, another annoyance dealt with.

"We've lost all contact with Unit 01!" Lt. Illich yelled out as all of the monitoring screens on her counsel dropped to nothing.

"Any chance it's do the Angel's interface?" Shouted Capt. Kelling. "Please... please be alright..."

"Negative, the umbilical cable is still attached, we should be getting something!" Lt. Haynes replied looking back from his counsel back at the captain.

"Break the circuits!" Dr. Ammadon ordered to Lt. Illich.

Illich frantically went over the deactivation programs and even used some back doors she knew but nothing!

"I can't! It's somehow physically refusing the signal!"

Megan looked up at the screen showing the Eva leaning over the now half demolished building it landed on looking all in the world like a massive dead body, red fluid steadily streaming from the damage areas around it's eye and arm. She then leaned in closer to Haynes asking, "Mikey, how's William?

"I've got nothing ma'am, the monitors are all down, I can't tell if he's alive or dead!"

She knew this was a bad idea. How could they expect a child, especially on who's never had even the slightest combat training, to pull this off... Of course she also knew full well she was the one who handed him over to them.

"Alright, under my authority we're aborting the operation! Capt. Megan Kelling yelled, "Marry! Get him the hell out of there!" There was no more to be had be keeping him in there... if... if he was still even...

"I can't!" Lt. Illich yelled back in panic, "They system says it's accepting the ejection command but... the plug isn't moving!" Something then appeared on he screen, it was the Eva's activation protocol!

"Wait! Unit 01... it's starting back up!"

"What was that!" Megan Asked in surprise, it couldn't be.. could it? She then noticed slight moment coming from the Eva... it's right hand started to twitch and it's mouth started to move slightly and then...

-*PANG!*-

Suddenly the Eva's great maw opened fully as all the restraining bolts that held it close where ripped free! The Eva rose up and then let out a howl of unimaginable savagery!

Megan looked on in shock and horror as did most of the personal there except once again the commander, a smile now framed his face.

**Angel battle site near Launch Route 071**

The streets heaved under the Eva's great bulk as it steeped forward and knelled, up head the Angel turned to look back at what had just caused this disturbance behind it just in time to see Eva Unit 01 launch it's self into a flip ripping the street half out of the ground below it landing squarely onto the Angel's massive chest with such force that it nearly knocked back over it's self, the Eva clawed at the Angels boned face cleaving half of it off reviling the ossified structure below it.

The Angel responded by letting out a wail and a surge of lightning bolts as it garbed the Eva's arms lifting it of from it's chest as the Eva snarled and wrenched trying to break free, the Angel tossed the Eva forward and shot a lance of light from it's eyes while it was still in the air but with an orange flare the blast flowed around the Eva consuming the surrounding buildings. The Eva landed on it's feet with an explosion of dust and asphalt, bending it knees and using it's good arm to absorb the energies of the impact. It looked up at the Angel as two more pulses of light shot from it's eyes, the Eva dodged to it's left taking part of a five story building with it as the Angel's blasts leveled what was left of the block.

The Eva came around over on the next block and launched it's self smashing through several rows of buildings trying to tackle the Angel from it's right side but was stopped with a great flash as an large orange hexagon flared into existence where the Eva impacted into the Angels A.T. Field. The Eva reared back and glared at the Angel and raised it's broken arm as almost to show the monstrous Angel what it has done, the Eva's arm then instantly snapped back into place fixing it's self and with a clenching of it's left fist it showed the Angel it's arm wasn't broken anymore.

**NERV Command Center**

"Left arm had just totally repaired it's self!" Lt. Haynes yelled out in amazement as Megan looked on almost in awe. How... how did it do that?

**Angel battle site**

With a roar another great flash appeared in front of the Eva as the Eva's now manifested A.T. Field impacted the Angles forcing it to bow under it's force, the Eva then took it's hands and ripped through it as if it was cellophane! The Angel reared back almost as if it was in shock and tried to fire at the Eva again only for it's shot to pass around it like water once more. The Eva reached in and grabbed the Angels arms and with a wench snapped them off just above the Angels wrists spilling blue fluid out pouring onto the ground as the Eva the pulled the Angel in closer by it's stumps and looked dead into the it's eyes before The Eva sent it flying backwards with a swift and brutal kick to it's chest were it smashed into a building at the opposite end of the block to the one the Angel threw the Eva into.

The Eva brought it's head down and charged horn first into the Angel howling as it smashed the Angel through the building and down the street and into another one and then another one finally coming to stop four blocks latter flinging the Angel like a rag doll into side of a ten story complex, the Eva took another leap into the air landing knee first right under where the Angel's rib cage would be as the Angel let out a hapless wail.

The Eva then straddled the battered Angel who now laid there almost submissively, the aura dimming around above it and the Eva began to tear at the spot it landed on ripping flesh from it's body until it uncovered something, a large red highly reflective orb and the Eva began to bring it's fist down into it producing a burst of sparks and shock waves in the air with each blow but even with that the Eva seemed to be getting no where. It stopped and looked across it's victims body coming across the rib-like protrusions that surrounded the orb and then ripped one straight off of the Angel's chest and began to stab it into the red sphere with furry and it cracked.

With that the Angel suddenly sprang back to action, it's torn arms became wipe like and wrapped around the Eva, the Eva stood up and try to claw it off to no avail as the rest of the Angel body turned playable and wrapped it's self around the Eva bring it's chest orb as close to the Eva's own chest as possible, the aura above it started to glow the brightest it has been seen as lightning bolts crackled around it and in a great flash of light the Angel exploded exploded sending up a fiery funeral pillar towards the heavens.

**NERV Command Center**

Everyone watched the inferno that had swallowed the area in a crimson embrace with the same thought on there lip's.

"Eva.. Unit 01... is.. is it?" Megan began to ask when from the sea of flames the Eva stepped forth like a devil out of hell it's one eye glaring-reflecting the the fire behind it.

Everyone's concern now turned from worry over the Eva's fate to one of surprised horror.

Something about the Eva now terrified them.

From above them Commander Ikari watch on, satisfaction in his veiled eyes. Everything had gone exactly as he had hoped.

**Inside the entry plug, Eva Unit 01**

Light finally began to Williams world as he awakened... or at lest he though we was awakening... he couldn't quiet tell... his mind was just so muddled.

He noticed that he, that he felt huge and then he noticed he felt hot and then finally he noticed that his right eye felt weird and that he couldn't see out of it. He turned to see where he was only to see nothing but fire. He then felt something give from his head as something fell from it hitting the ground with a clang.

He went to look down at what had fallen but a reflection off from a rows of windows from a building caught his attention and he turned to face it and saw not his face starring back at him but that of a monster missing it's right eye. The front part of the Eva's helmet was what had fallen away reviling to William the horror that laid beneath under the armor, the plating, tubes and wires to the true face of the Eva hid behind that mask...

He stood there looking in stunned silence, he rose his left hand up to touch it... to touch the Eva's face when he felt his... and the Eva's right eye surged and bloat out. William clenched back under the discomfit of the feeling as flesh around the Eva's damaged eye rippled and bubbled as a new emerald green eye formed and emerged back into it's socket. He then saw the Eye moved on it's own with out his input and with out effecting his own vision somehow and then the eye focused back on him, seeming to peer into his soul and he felt a presence reach out and touch him.

William screamed and his world once more went dark.

Volume one end.

Coming soon in Volume two: Self and Others

To meet others is to risk pain.

Three weeks have past now since William Ikari arrived in D.C and slowly he learns to adjust to his new life as he is enrolled into public school for the time where he learns that that his actions may bring him praise from some and anger from others as the peace is broken when another Angel arrives and attacks the city.


End file.
